Scholarship Award
Get started, work hard, up your
performance and receive
one of the following prizes from
JM BUSHA Investment
Group, the student partner:

University
(i) Full Scholarship (Tuition and Accommodation)
(ii) Tuition Grant
(iii) Textbooks Grant
High School
The best performing Grade 11 student receives
(i) R1,000 Prize money
(ii) Two library books and
(iii) Qualifies for entry into the
JM BUSHA Scholarship Award
The Future
A good education, a good career, a better life,
and the best investment portfolio are equal to a secure
financial and happy future.
For that, talk to JM BUSHA Investment Group.
Invest wisely. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s your performance.
www.jmbusha.com or invest@jmbusha.com

EXECUTIVE REPORT

W

ealth creation is not exclusive
to a certain kind of person; in
a world where money is the
medium of exchange, wealth
creation becomes an imperative
for any participant in the global
economy. This is everyone’s game.
BullsnBears is a comprehensive financial information
platform created by students for students. It is a
platform where the aspiring investor and/or trader can
have specific access to investment and stock marketrelated knowledge presented in a student-friendly way,
either to get them to start learning about investing and
trading, or to further complement their investment or
trading careers.
The BullsnBears platform contains educational and
experiential learning tools to facilitate the process of
teaching about investing and trading and empowering
our users, through the site, to gain enough experiential
learning to actually start to invest or trade in reality.
Student Investor is a product of BullsnBears and is
oriented specifically towards students.
The Student Investor is conceived as the young,
ambitious maverick keenly investing into his or her
future. These mavericks hunger for knowledge, with
one eye on the present and one eye on the exciting
future they are creating. These are the leaders, the
role models, the radical students, the overachievers
– all with a hunger for the pursuit of progression.
They may be future photographers, writers, traders,
entrepreneurs, lawyers, or on any other career path,
but the thing they have in common is this hunger –
and the willingness to be bold.
With all necessary resources, the BullsnBears
platform helps students right from the stage of not
knowing what investing is, all the way through to
becoming an advanced day trader themselves.

Together with our educational resources; our
affordable and efficient entry to the market; our daily
newsletter; our fundamental and technical analysis
reports; our Student Investor Game and now The
Money Tree magazine, we aim to make the financial
and investment world a more student- and userfriendly place to be.
We are incredibly proud of what the team have
managed to put together over the last few months.
A lot of students are afraid to step out of their
comfortable world of study and do something big –
but not this team. And now, with this launch issue of
The Money Tree, our own magazine, we roll out yet
another bold new project.
The Money Tree pays tribute to the exciting world
of business in which we all live. Over the last few
years, business and finance has lost its appeal to
many of the youth, and our vision is to change that.
– Steve Jobs
Our vision is to make business fun, youthful, exciting
and accessible. We plan on revolutionising financial
education, with a touch of creativity. The Money Tree
has the unique appeal of being able to satisfy this
vision, while also opening up the exciting world of
wealth: how to create it, what to do with it, and how to
operate in a world dominated by it.
We are all lifetime students, and in a world where
money is necessary, and being able to make it
work for you is entirely possible, being a Student
Investor is imperative. Benjamin Franklin puts it
perfectly when he says: “An investment in
knowledge pays the best interest.”
So sit back and enjoy your journey
towards financial freedom with the The
Money Tree. Imagine having so much
money as if it was growing on trees…

“The
people
who are
crazy
enough
to think
they can
change
the
world,
are the
ones
who do.”

Chad Daniel Bushnell
(“Bushy”) is Founder & CEO
of BullsnBears (Pty) Ltd.
Born in Durban, South Africa,
Chad’s enduring passion for the
markets has seen him through
the years, and he would like
to share that with the world –
whether you know this passion,
or if you want to explore it.
He is committed to making
BullsnBears the best possible
platform to help change the
fortunes of students forever,
and he wants every student in
this country to be a part of this
revolution.

Tokologo Phetla
lives to serve Africa and
awaken it to its beauty
and significance in what
he terms “the quest to
giving the world a more
African face”. When he
is not focused
on business and
entrepreneurship, he is
either writing his book,
reading or learning
Mandarin (his newly
found passion). “All men
are great. The difference
lies in those who realise it
and those who don’t.”

Matthew McElligott
is a serial entrepreneur,
tech enthusiast and is
crazy about start-ups and
business. Starting his first
business at age 15 he
has always had that thrill
for entrepreneurship and
making money. Currently
involved in four startups ranging from the
technology to the
financial services
industries he enjoys the
challenge in developing a
business from scratch out
of an idea.

Matthew Piper
is passionate about
entrepreneurship, art and
making money. He has
always been drawn to
the education space and
has worked extensively
in tutoring projects aimed
at uplifting disadvantaged
communities. As the Founder
of Student Investor, this trend
in empowering others is
apparent. Matthew aims to
be at the forefront of change
in South Africa, through
entrepreneurial spirit and
leadership.

How to read QR-codes
First, you need a QR-code app and a
smartphone or tablet equipped with
a camera. Then, go to the App store
and search for a free QR-code app.
Some examples of free QR-code
apps: RedLaser for iOS; RedLaser
or QR Droid for Android; QR Code
Scanner Pro for BlackBerry.

When you launch your app, you’ll see
that your phone’s camera is activated.
Next, line up the camera on your device
with the QR code you want to scan and
hold the device steady until the app can
read the code.
Then, most apps automatically take you
to the relevant website; some you have
to click or tap. Have fun!

5

events
6-9 MARCH

Ramfest

Cape Town, Johannesburg
and Durban
Ramfest is short for Real Alternative Music
Festival, and that’s exactly what you’ll get.
Three stages across five cities showcase the
country’s best in Metal, Blues, Indie-Rock and
Electronic music, with a handful of international
acts each year. Past bands include In Flames,
Pendulum, Rise Against and Alkaline Trio. They
offer camping and all the shenanigans that go
with it and is also the only festival of its size in
South Africa with a dedicated metal stage to
cater for the more underground audience. Great
organisation, people and music make this a
must-attend for any music lover.
www.ramfest.co.za

6

28-29 MARCH

Cape Town
International
Jazz Festival

Cape Town
The name says it all. Every year thousands flock to
the mother city and drive the locals mad with traffic
jams, as the smooth sounds of jazz, blues, RnB,
soul and even hip-hop echo off the side of Table
Mountain. Internationally recognised as one of the
premier Jazz and Blues festivals (number four in
the world by Melodytrip) the festival has attracted
acts like the Buena Vista Social Club, Lauren Hill,
Earth Wind and Fire and Youssou Ndour. Tickets
go fast and in large numbers. More than 30,000
people attended last year, so get your tickets well in
advance. www.capetownjazzfest.com

17-21 APRIL

SPLASHY FEN

KZN
The oldest of the big festivals in South Africa,
Splashy Fen is also one of the most diverse. It
offers everything from folk to dance to traditional
to rock music, all taking place in the shadow of the
magnificent Drakensberg Mountains. Started in
1990, Splashy Fen attracts about 10,000 people
every year and has a multitude of activities in
addition to live music. It is also regarded as one of
the more family-friendly festivals with a separate
family camp site. Make the journey; you won’t be
disappointed.
www.splashyfen.co.za

26 Feb & 1 March

15 & 19 Feb

Cape Town and Johannesburg
Eight-time Grammy award winners Santana will
be touring at the end of summer, performing three
shows in Cape Town on 25, 26, and 27 February
before finishing the South African leg of their world
tour with an all-out spectacular at the Calabash in
Soweto on 1 March.
Led by Carlos Santana, who is among the world’s
most celebrated guitarists, the band first gained
commercial success after their 1969 Woodstock
performance and the 1970 release of the album
Abraxas, which included the now classic hits “Black
Magic Woman” and “Oye Como Va”.
Santana will be in good company this summer as
the announcement comes shortly after Eminem also
announced his first visit to the continent, with shows
scheduled for Cape Town’s Stadium on 26 February
and at Johannesburg’s Ellis Park Stadium on
1 March. Choices! Choices!

Cape Town, Johannesburg
and Durban
Want to see some of the biggest and most
dangerous stunts in freestyle motocross, skate and
BMX with over 40 of the world’s best action sports
athletes performing their biggest and best tricks?
Then you won’t want to miss the Nitro Circus Live’s
tour, coming to South Africa for the first time in 2014.
“This is truly an exciting, adrenaline-charged,
live action sports show featuring an insane group
of athletes who push each other to new extremes
every single show,” says action sports legend Travis
Pastrana, a 10-time X Games gold medallist in
Freestyle Motocross, who heads up the tour.
These guys also push their limits on a range of
whacky contraptions, including a drinks cooler, Barbie
car, toy trike, shopping trolley, boogie board and
more. One of the craziest stunts is the extraordinary
“hole-in-one” where riders launch 50 feet into the
air off the Gigant-A-Ramp and attempt to land with
pinpoint accuracy inside an inflatable Zorb ball.
Nitro Circus Live will perform on 15 February
at Cape Town Stadium, 19 February at Moses
Mabhida Stadium, Durban and
22 February at FNB Stadium,
Johannesburg.

Santana Live
in SA

29 APRIL – 5 MAY

KKNK

(Klein Karoo Nationale
Kunstefees)
Oudtshoorn, Klein Karoo,
Western Cape
If you haven’t heard of the KKNK, you haven’t
lived in South Africa long enough. Basically it’s
the Grahamstown festival in the Karoo, but its
Afrikaans version. The KKNK has more of an
emphasis on the live music aspect, with shows
like Kaktus Op Die Vlaktes, but there is a bit of
everything for everyone. Theatre, craft markets,
beer tents, copious amounts of brandy – it’s all
here. Don’t be put off by the Afrikaans moniker if
you’re not so linguistically inclined, you’ll be made
to feel at home and find something to your liking.
www.kknk.co.za

Nitro Circus
Live

Watch Travis Pastrana nail his
first double back flip at the
X Games in 2006.
http://youtu.be/pLtRW_7_piY

7

technology

gadgets
App-Controlled Wifi Spy Tank
R2,299
The App controlled SPY-C Tank is designed to work with Apple or
Android smart phones or tablets and creates its very own Wi-Fi
space for control and live view. The built-in digital camera transmits
a live image back to your device and its moving head allows you
to control and view what’s happening in one place while you’re in
another. We still think there’s much that is better left unseen, but
we’re sure you’ll come up with some great applications.
www.mantality.co.za

Parrot AR Drone 2.0 Quadricopter

Apps

All New Elite Edition
R4,199
The new Elite Edition now includes one 1,000mAh lithium
polymer battery to provide up to 12 minutes of flying time, plus a
convenient mains charger with international adaptors. Featuring
a high definition camera with a video recording facility, plus flight
data sharing, a patented piloting mode, and an innovative pressure
sensor for increased stability at any altitude, Parrot's amazing
AR.Drone 2.0 Elite Edition quadricopter can even perform four axis
flips on command!
www.mantality.co.za

TERMINAL VELOCITY MOBILE
The Terminal Velocity mobile app allows you to
access your trading account on the move. The
simple and convenient interface allows you to keep
an eye on the market and manage your positions
while you are away from your desk.
Why do we like it so much?
BullsnBears clients, through our strategic partnership with Anglorand
Financial, provide a platform for traders to trade and monitor their
portfolio, on the go! You can view, analyse and trade right on your phone
or tablet. Once you have opened an account through BullsnBears,
we give you your login details and you’ll start building that portfolio in
no time! What makes this package even more special, is the fact that
all prices and data are live, unlike most other platforms that run with
15-minute delayed pricing. play.google.com/store

8

Belkin Rockstar
R199
The Belkin RockStar makes it fun to create your own music
experience. Connect up to five headphones, and your iPod, to start
sharing. Or, add another iPod to mix songs and listen together.
Works with all MP3 and DVD players, as well as other portable media
devices. For more information visit www.tudortech.co.za.

Jagermeister
Drunken
Drizzler
R395
Are you the sort of person who calls
a sandwich a focaccia, a sauce a
jus or a piece of toast a tostada?
Well, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re either Italian/Spanish or
inclined towards culinary pretension.
Either way, have we got the bottle
for you!
www.mantality.co.za

RescueTec
Water recovery solution for
pocket electronic devices
R265
The RescueTec will bring your
device back to life with a tried,
tested and trusted restoration pack.
The RescueTec pack comprises
of a re-sealable multi-layered
aluminium foil pouch, providing a
complete moisture barrier.
www.mantality.co.za
play.google.com/store

BLOOMBERG

SHARENET

Get comprehensive access to global business
and finance news, market data and portfolio
tracking tools from the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most trusted
source. Personalise the information that matters
to you most and access it instantly.

Why do we like it so much?
Whether you are looking to buy your girlfriend a new piece of
jewelry and want to check out the gold price before doing so, or
thinking about that Eurotrip you want to book and currency markets
are your going concern, Bloomberg has it all. Bloomberg TV+
allows users to watch live Bloomberg TV for free, right on their iPad!
www.bloomberg.com

f

Why do we like it so much?
This platform is designed for the South African
market and, unlike some other apps, it is not
cluttered with data that is irrelevant for our local
conditions. Whether you are looking for local news,
prices or charts, Sharenet has it all for you, for free.
itunes.apple.com

Visit us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/officialbullsnbears

9

entertainment

JANUARY

12 Years a Slave

12 Years a Slave is the film adaption of the 1853 autobiography
written by Solomon Northup. The film tells the incredible story of
one man's fight for survival and freedom. In the pre-Civil War United
States, Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a free black man from
upstate New York, is abducted and sold into slavery. Facing cruelty,
personified by a malevolent slave owner (Michael Fassbender), as
well as unexpected kindnesses, Solomon struggles not only to stay
alive, but to retain his dignity. In the twelfth year of his unforgettable
odyssey, Solomon’s chance meeting with a Canadian abolitionist
(Brad Pitt) alters his life forever.
Release date: 17 January

FEBRUARY

American Hustle

Much like Russell’s other films, American Hustle defies genre, hinging
on raw emotion, and life-and-death stakes.
A fictional film set in the seductive world of one of the most stunning
scandals to rock the nation, American Hustle tells the story of
brilliant con man Irving Rosenfeld (Christian Bale) who, along with
his equally cunning British partner and lover, Sydney Prosser (Amy
Adams), is forced to work for an unhinged FBI agent, Richie DiMaso
(Bradley Cooper). DiMaso pushes them into a world of New Jersey
powerbrokers and mafia that is as dangerous as it is enchanting. The
passionate and volatile New Jersey political operator, Carmen Polito
(Jeremy Renner) is caught between the con-artists and the federal
agents, and Irving’s unpredictable wife Rosalyn (Jennifer Lawrence)
could just be the one to pull the thread that brings the whole world
crashing down. Three-time Academy-Award nominee Director David
O Russell is still bathing in the glow of Silver Linings Playbook, which
was nominated for eight Academy Awards and which coincidently
also starred both Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence (who, in fact,
won the Best Actress Oscar). Russell also had success with his 2010
10

film The Fighter, which earned seven Oscar nominations, one apiece
for both Christian Bale and Amy Adams. Hence, with such a starstudded cast, and a director of this calibre who holds a vast amount of
experience with these actors, American Hustle is widely anticipated to
make headway in the box office.
Release date: 14 February

MARCH

300: Rise of an Empire

300: Rise of an Empire is based on Frank Miller’s latest graphic
novel Xerxes and is told in the amazing visual style of its
predecessor, the blockbuster 300 . This new chapter in the epic
saga takes the action to a fresh battlefield – the sea – as Greek
general Themistokles (Sullivan Stapleton) attempts to unite all of
Greece by leading a charge that will change the course of the
war. The film pits Themistokles against the massive invading
Persian forces led by mortal-turned-god Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro)
and Artemisia (Eva Green), the vengeful commander of the
Persian navy. Other well-known actors taking part in the action
include Lena Headey reprising her role from 300 as Gorgo the
Spartan Queen, Hans Matheson (Clash of the Titans) starring as
Aeskylos, and David Wenham (Van Helsing) as Dilios.
Release date: 7 March

TITANFALL

Acclaimed independent videogame
developer Respawn EAntertainment,
along with Electronic Arts, prepare to
release their debut game, Titanfall on
14 March 2014. Already the winner of more than 80 coveted
awards from critics around the world, Titanfall has smitten its fans
with its thrilling, dynamic first-person action gameplay featuring elite
assault pilots and agile, heavily-armoured, 24-foot titans. Crafted
by one of the co-creators of Call of Duty and other key designers
behind the Call of Duty franchise, Titanfall delivers a brand-new online
experience that combines fluid, fast-paced multiplayer action with
heroic, set-piece moments found in traditional campaign modes.
Set in the near future on a distant frontier torn apart by war, Titanfall
drops players in the middle of a conflict between the Interstellar
Manufacturing Corporation (IMC) and the Militia. The action is rapid
and varied – featuring parkour-style wall running, massive double
jumps and the ability to hijack titans. The freedom to shift back and
forth between pilot and titan allows players to change tactics on the
fly, attacking or escaping depending on the situation and extending
the action vertically to new heights.
Titanfall will be available for Xbox One, Xbox 360 and PC.

11

e
c
n
a
m
o
R
valentine’s

By Megan Kinnaird

Preparing For

A

s a 20-something-year-old
dying to express to that special
someone just how much they
mean to you, planning Valentine’s Day
on a limited budget always seems like a
daunting task. We’re here to tell you that
it can be done, and quite easily in fact. All
you need is a bit of planning, a smidge of
cash, and an adventurous spirit.
Forget crowded restaurants where the
level of intimacy and personal touch is
zilch. This year, take advantage of the
glorious summer sunshine and spend
your Valentine’s Day outdoors. There’s
a reason romantic poets won’t stop
harping on about the beauty of nature.
Much like there is a reason Dante
Alighieri wrote “nature is the art of God”.
Taking that lucky someone out into
nature to declare, or reaffirm, your love
is the best way to do it. Valentine’s Day
picnics are personal, beautiful and, let’s
face it, cheaper than splashing out on a
fancy dinner.
The three spots we have chosen to
highlight are accessible, affordable and
well within an average budget.

12

Silvermine Nature Reserve
Cape Town
The Silvermine Nature Reserve, just a
20-minute drive out of the city, forms part
of the Table Mountain National Park. It
costs only R30 to get in, and the reserve
boasts beautiful picnic spots surrounding
the massive reservoir, extensive birdlife for
those nature-lovers and hiking/biking trails
for the adventure-couple.

Walter Sisulu Botanical
Gardens
Johannesburg
Situated only 6km from the city centre, the
Johannesburg Botanical gardens are one
of eight botanical gardens in South Africa.
Part manicured lawn and part nature
reserve, the focal point of the gardens is
the waterfall, a popular leisure spot among
locals.
There are three dams to walk around
within the gardens if you fancy strolling
hand-in-hand with your sweetheart, like a
character out of some cheesy RomCom.
The Silvermine Nature Reserve

You won’t be able to miss the 220
species of birds and range of 600 plants,
but make sure to look out for small
mammals such as antelope and jackals.
In terms of fame, the site was voted
by Huffington Post as the second best
botanical garden in the world, which, as you
know, is no mean feat.
For all this, a minimal fee of R27 is
required at the entrance. And for a
student, well, that is really only the cost of
two beers anyway.
Durban North Japanese
Gardens
Durban
Complete with a valley of lakes,
waterfalls, cobbled pathways, and
weeping willows, the Japanese Gardens
on Tinsley Road are the setting for that
picturesque kind of picnic. Walk over
rustic bridges and settle-down on lush
green lawns for a day that’ll make you
think of Mulan or Memoirs of a Geisha.
There are even traditional koi ponds
and frog statues to complete that
“conventionally” Japanese ambience.
And even better, for the “conventional”
student, is the lack of entrance fee.

e

PLANNING THE
PERFECT PICNIC
What to pack in your basket
• Blanket and pillows – for that extra padding under the
bum and a soft place to rest your head when staring
at the clouds, though hopefully a lap is offered.
• Knives, forks, plates – unless you’re into the rustic
thing. If you’re opting for finger foods, take along a
box of toothpicks to use as skewers.
• Glasses – good champagne tasts better from a glass,
or you can swig out of the bottle. We’re not fussed.
If you are taking glasses, long-stemmed look fancier
but better to opt for lower-gravity vessels.
• Suncream – sleeping off sunstroke is not a fun way
to spend the evening of Valentine’s Day. Plus, what’s
more intimate that rubbing lotion on someone’s
shoulders?
• Book/magazines – just in case conversation runs
dead. But leave your cell phone turned off no matter
what.
Basics
• Savoury biscuits (R13)
• Cream cheese (R21)
• Carrot sticks (R16)
• Ham or salami (R20)
• Mini Italian tomatoes (R9) • Gherkins (R21)
(Total < R100)
Desert
• Grapes (R20) – great for feeding your lover by hand.
• Strawberries (R15) and whipped cream for dipping
(R12) – it is Valentine’s Day, you know. There is always
space for a bit of kinkiness.
(Total < R50)
Wine/Champagne/Beer
We recommend you spend what you can on decent
quality wine or champagne. Remember to pack ice in
that cooler box.
Feeling like a bit more of a splurge, then add
these delicacies to your hamper
• Loaf of French bread
• Caviar
• Chunk of Brie or Camembert • Figs
• Smoked salmon
• Prosciutto
• Dark chocolate

13

technology

By charl du plessis

Samsung vs Apple

P

A Tale of Two Apples; Big & Small

reaching to the choir. Yes, when it comes to
arguing for either Samsung or Apple, people
go deaf. They know what they like. They like
what they know. And they could not care
anywhere on the rats’ anatomy what others
know or like, as long as it is the same as theirs. So, save
your breath on comparing features and functionality.
Substance follows prejudice when it comes to choosing
your tech-tribe.
Here’s a different kind of story to help put the final nail
in the Apple coffin (now, surely there can be no doubt
where I stand on this!). And for the sake of transparency,
let me declare myself a Blackberry nut that is in early
mourning for the terminal decline of the company that
has served me pretty much just fine for almost eight
years. This is the story of the two apples – one big
and one small, both blown completely into mythical
proportion.
Let’s start with the Big Apple. I lived there and loved it
and totally bought into the mythology of “making it in the
City”. At several stages, I reflected upon my time in New
York as the coolest period of my life. I saw upcoming
bands in my local dives that later went platinum. I saw
favourite artists who would never make it to South Africa
because they were too platinum already to suffer the
distance and aggravation. I learnt to roller blade and
snowboard. The subway map was imprinted in my mind.
Au pairs from back home, scattered across the filthy rich
North East suburbs, came to town over weekends to play.

I could find food from each continent within five minutes of
my doorstep. As good as it gets?
No. Sorry to rain on the parade. It was cool only
because enough people wanted to believe it, and kept
on telling one another the same thing: how cool it was
to be living in New York. In reality, it is absurd that eight
million people live on top of each other in the world’s
most expensive shoeboxes. That they walk to work
dodging taxis, blizzards and homeless people and still
have the energy to schlepp dry cleaning and groceries
home in pitch dark (read: “4:30pm in mid-winter”).
They have to queue for anything marginally worthwhile
(Madison Square Gardens tickets?). The fact that New
York bravado or machismo is part of this self-feeding
vicious cycle also does not make it any more pleasant.
It’s a tough way of living. Period.
The Big Apple works, in my view, only because enough
people buy into this myth; namely that it is cool. If you
had to consider real human nature, then comfort and
kindness would likely rank much higher than the NYC
experience. And if enough people can make others
believe the Big Apple is worth it, how much the more so
with the little Apple – the i-generation of products some
people cannot live without?
I had my first Apple Mac in the 1980s. On three
occasions I found good enough reason to dump Mac and
join the PC-masses. Let’s face it, Apples were cool and
have reinvented cool quite often. I felt like a pimp-withvirtue showcasing my orange Mac in public.

The Big Apple
works, in my view,
only because enough
people buy into this
myth; namely that
it is cool.

14

And I would love to have one of those old, first-generation
Apple Macs somewhere on my shelf. It was history, and its
drop-down menu idea single-handedly killed off the future
sales of 10 million Computing for Dummies books. Steve
Jobs had vision and genius. He lived in the right place at
the right time. When he died, I reread his 1985 interview
with Playboy Magazine. It was evident that his technology
vision had come to fruition. It was even more striking that
his social vision for the role of technology in society did not
come to fruition. He would likely have freaked out in 1985
if people told him then that his toys would become elitist.
In a post-Jobs era, the future will be determined by regular
economics. Half the magic was the man. The rest was
just people and process. It is hard for the leapfrogger to
leapfrog itself, and having jumped IBM with a surprise once
before, Apple will likely remain on high alert until infinity so
as not to be surprised in similar fashion. Thus, it is regular
economics that will tell us which tribe will eventually trump.
In my mind, that is Samsung by a mile. And then some.
Here are four reasons to dump Apple now:

1

MASSCLUSIVITY has its limits. You sell Louis Vuitton
bags at a premium. When every woman owns one, it is
no longer special and no one will pay the premium. This
idea will forever keep the too-trendy, too-expensive and
too-regularly-in-need-of-upgrade Apple short on scale. It
will never have the numbers.

2

Numbers x Margin = RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT.
Let’s not consult the dictionary to find the Korean word
for “creativity” just yet. But as several industries can

attest, when a category has been established and can
be re-engineered to perfection, we all know where to go
and where to source quality and value. And it’s decidedly
not looking West.

3

PRICE, PRICE AND PRICE. The global economy
is in a deep slump. And it will remain in that slump for a
considerable while. Value counts. And since Samsung’s
smart marketers have managed to undermine the one
key competitive advantage of Apple, namely its cool
factor, nobody needs to look like a cheapskate when
buying on price. Where is the Apple wristwatch/phone?

4

TIPPING POINT AND SCALE. At some point
in most product lifecycles and industries, fortune
and trend favour the one or the other and create a
certain momentum vis a vis competitors. Samsung is
experiencing that momentum and is doing enough smart
things, and often enough, to keep the momentum going.
And if derivative industries, such as app developers,
throw their money behind where momentum is showing,
a virtuous cycle appears. More apps, more users. More
users, more apps.
So, spare a thought for the two apples. The Big Apple
has shown it resilience in reinventing itself. But, often,
that has been because people had nowhere else to go.
Moving to Des Moines or Buffalo is a complex affair.
By comparison, walking across the street and buying
a Samsung and downloading gazillions of free apps?
That’s a walk in the park…

15

advice

Ask the elder
Elder Tree: a genus, Sambucus, of flowering plants in the family Adoxaceae. Ornamental
varieties are grown in gardens for their showy flowers, fruits and lacy foliage.

STUDENT HOUSING
Dear Mr Money Tree,
I am paying through my ears for my apartment. My
landlord (should I call him slumlord?) owns half of
our street close to campus, and we are squeezed very tightly for
rentals. When something breaks down, he takes forever to fix it. My
housemates and I have been talking about using our money to buy
our own place instead of making him rich. Do you think it’s a good
idea?
Andrew, UCT
Dear Andrew,
A wise real estate agent once told me “the dear Lordie ain’t making no
more of this stuff.” It was his way of saying that there will always be more
demand than supply when it gets to real estate, and that in the long
run, prices will always go up. So, yes, in principle, it is always a good
investment. But, there are risks. Things break and need maintenance.
One bad tenant’s lost rental can set all your investment projections
back. Keep an open mind to these risks and also consider hidden costs
like insurances and rates and taxes. The next step is to get financing.
As students, without fixed income, you will need someone to act as
guarantor for your mortgage loan. If all else fails, look at investing in socalled REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts) where you can trade in and
out of the property market very quickly. That may be your best alternative.
Mr Money Tree
GOOD GIRLS GO WHERE?
Dear Mr Money Tree
We sat next to each other in class for months and
then struck up a conversation at our church picnic.
She is obviously just as shy as I am, but once we break the ice, we
can talk up a storm. My problem is that I feel incredibly physically
attracted to her. We are both 18 and I suppose we are legally
entitled to have sex, but she claims on the one hand that she wants
to marry as a virgin, yet on the other hand, she plays along when I
try to make my moves. I find this all very confusing. How do I get
her to have sex with me in a way where she does not hate herself or
me the next day?
Xolile, NMU
Hi Xolile,
What you two seem to have is quite special. Most 18-year olds would
have jumped in bed by now, outed the other on social media, never
16

spoken to one another again and spent the rest of their lives feeling guilty.
So, nurture what sounds like a good relationship that is developing. If
she believes some deity wants her to abstain, you might have to respect
that or try and persuade her to change her religion. I will accept bets
on which one is easier to achieve. Your basic dilemma seems to be
that your normal instincts are being hindered by ideology. Now, you can
either be as serious a believer as she is and therefore abstain, or else you
are likely not matching her requirements in terms of spirituality, so why
would she think of spending her life with you one day? Maybe, she is just
confused because you are so dashing and charming! My suggestion is to
respect her ways, accept that no means no, yet always keep a condom
handy in case she chooses to succumb to the temptation.
Mr Money Tree
CUT ABOVE THE REST
Mr Money Tree,
I worked hard to get a scholarship and am the first
one from my family to enjoy my current level of
education. It has been tough but I am now firmly in my second
(academic!) year. My strongest subject has been physics, since
early days, and I am involved with a bunch of really cool extracurricular programmes. This is where my problem started. I get
plenty of invitations to some of my teachers’ homes and also to
public restaurants close to some of our events when we have
summer programmes or events like that. And every time I sit down
at one of these fancy spots, I am stunned by the amount of cutlery,
and I never know when to use what. Help me out man.
Luka, Wits
Dear Luka,
It looks daunting, yet there is a simple method. You work your way
from the outside in, each set of knife and fork with each next course.
Of course, if you skip out on one course, for instance the fish, you pass
up the fish knife and fork (they are the easiest to spot with their broad
blade and neck). Make the waiter your friend, asking him or her to
remove what you do not need. Dessert utensils sit atop your plate – a
spoon and fork – and it’s worth looking at a YouTube video or two to see
how best to use them together. More conspicuous, of course, are all
the choices of glasses you will have in a similar setting. Big – red wine;
medium – white wine; flute – bubbly. Tumblers will do for water and hard
drinks, and it sounds to me like you might need a stiff shot so that you
can relax and rather eat and talk physics next time.
Mr Money Tree.

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Your daily cappuccino may cost R25-R35
a day, but in one year that will add up to over
R5,000! Save money by making your own. By the time
you graduate from a four-year degree programme you will
have saved over R20,000!
Drinking plain tap water compared to iced tea and cold beverages
is not only healthier for you, but lighter on your wallet too! You should be
drinking eight glasses of water a day.

Have exercise misconceptions
prevented you from starting an exercise
programme? Clear up any confusion
and let these exercise tips improve your
workout routine.

By Prof Elmarie Terblanche, Chairperson of the Department of Sport Science at the University of
Stellenbosch. Prof Terblanche writes about research of a practical nature and addresses questions
that are of relevance to athletes at all levels.

18

1

I will burn more fat if I exercise longer at a
lower intensity
So you’ve heard about the “fat burning zone”. In other words, if you
want to lose weight, you need to exercise at a low intensity (a low
heart rate). What few people realise is that you actually burn the
highest proportion of fat while at rest (around 70% of your energy
comes from fat) and by now we know that being a couch potato
doesn’t make you thin. The most important focus in exercise and fat
weight control is not the percentage of energy coming from fat during
exercise, but the total energy cost of exercise, or how many calories
are burned during the activity. The faster you walk, step or run, for
example, the more calories you use per minute. Therefore at low
exercise intensity, you need to exercise for a very long time (far more
than an hour per day) to match the total energy expenditure of a high
intensity workout.
There is a growing body of research supporting the use of highintensity interval training for fat loss. This form of “cardio” takes
less than half the time (typically 12 to 20 minutes) of traditional long
duration cardio and leads to better results, i.e. faster and greater
fat loss, more rapid improvements in fitness and better exercise
adherence.

2

Go hard or go home!
If this is your kind of thinking, you will never
start or maintain an exercise programme.
There is overwhelming evidence from
research that one should rather do something
than nothing, and that every little bit helps.
For example, regular walking or gardening for
as little as an hour a week has been shown
to reduce the risk of heart disease. You will
not necessarily be able to run a marathon or
bench press 100kg, but both your body and
soul will be much happier.

3

I can get my dream body
if I just train hard enough
Both weight gain and loss is impacted by
many factors, including dietary intake, your
environment and genetics. All individuals will
not lose the same amount of weight on the
same exercise programme. Some individuals
will actually respond very little to a regular
exercise regimen in terms of losing fat weight
(these individuals are called non-responders).
You have all seen runners finishing the
Comrades marathon not looking the part.
Now you will be mistaken if you think they
have not trained hard and long hours to finish
that race, because nobody can just step up
to the starting line and run more than 90km.
This is good evidence to show that exercise
per se doesn’t make you thin, especially if
you’re not endowed with the right genes.
Losing body fat is a complicated matter (if not,
we wouldn’t have rising obesity rates), and it
goes far beyond a regular training programme.
The good news, however, is that research
has shown that being overweight and fit is
much better than being thin and sedentary, as
fitness is directly related to a lower risk of allcause mortality. Furthermore, regular physical
activity is one of the most important factors for
successful long-term weight management.

4

Weight training makes
women big and bulky
Weight training can make you bulk up – if you
have the XY chromosome and it is your distinct

Research has shown
that most people
misjudge both the
number of calories
burned during
exercise and the
number of calories
in food eaten.

intention to build huge muscles. Even then, it is no
easy feat to gain muscle. It takes time and effort,
a carefully compiled scientific training programme
and finely tuned nutritional strategies. For women,
however, these sound strategies will not be
enough. The reason being that women have
nowhere near the required testosterone levels to
put on any significant amounts of muscle mass.
If you do see women with bulky muscles, you
know for sure that their dietary habits include illegal
substances such as anabolic steroids, growth
hormone and many other designer drugs. There is
just no other way. The truth is that strength training
approximately two to four times a week, doing a
variety of exercises for the major muscle groups,
will help women to achieve a lean and toned
appearance, and strengthen bones and joints. In
fact, since women are more prone to osteoporosis,
it could be said that women might actually benefit
more from weight training than men.

5

I’m way too old for this
Age is just a very bad excuse. Studies have
shown that it is never too late to start
working out – you can reap benefits at any
age. Exercise can help reduce the risk of
bone and muscle diseases and help enhance
daily functionality even later in life. This
means you will be more independent as you
get older, not to mention being admired by
your grandchildren for completing the odd
fun walk/run every now and then.

6

Pass the puff pastry, I went
to gym today
You are in for a big surprise. You will
probably gain weight, as the exercise will
increase your metabolism and give you a
healthy appetite. Research has shown that
most people misjudge both the number
of calories burned during exercise and the
number of calories in food eaten. So never
use exercise as an excuse to overindulge. If
your goal is weight loss, you must learn to
eat more without increasing your calorie
intake. This means healthier choices of
foods, smaller portion sizes and eating
regularly during the day.
19

7

If you’re not drenched in sweat,
you’re not working hard enough
The harder you work out, the more calories
you’ll burn within a given period and
thus the more fat you stand to lose, but
how much you sweat does not necessarily
reflect how hard you’re working. Some
people tend to sweat bucket loads while
others don’t sweat much at all, regardless
of their fitness level or degree of exertion.
Your sweat rate is related to your body
weight, your genetic makeup and external
factors such as environmental conditions
and clothing. Exercising in extremely hot
weather or in a plastic “weight loss” suit
will indeed make you sweat heavily and
lose weight immediately. That lost weight,
however, is almost entirely water and the
kilos will return when you replenish your
fluids by drinking after the workout.

8

Sit-ups burn the boep Not...
a… chance.
There’s no such thing as spot reducing or
burning fat off a particular body part, it
is physiologically impossible. When you
lose body fat, it comes off the body in a
predetermined genetic pattern similar to
how you gain the fat except in a reverse
order. When your body is in fat burning
mode, fat comes from all over the place –
your arms, calves, thighs, abdominals, face,
forearms, big toe, etc. If spot reducing really
worked, people who chew gum would have
skinny faces. Spot toning, on the other
hand, does work, and resistance exercises
will strengthen the targeted muscles. Look
at the dominant arms of professional
tennis players, and you’ll see the difference
in their muscle tone and size. The best
method for reducing overall body fat is
the age-old tried and true combination of
cardiovascular training, resistance training
and limiting your calorie intake. Results
come from doing these three things with
persistence and consistence.

20

9

The best time to
exercise is the time
you want to do it,
and are most likely
to do it, whether it's
morning, afternoon
or evening.

Morning workouts are
better for your metabolism
Proponents of this piece of wisdom
say that if you exercise in the morning,
you jump-start your metabolism and
therefore burn more calories during
the day. There’s absolutely no evidence
that this is true. The best time to
exercise is the time you want to do it,
and are most likely to do it, whether
it’s morning, afternoon or evening.
The only exception is for those with
high blood pressure. Research has
shown that your blood pressure
remains low for up to nine hours
after an acute exercise bout. This
phenomenon is called post-exercise
hypotension. So for those with
hypertension, exercise in the morning
is advantageous, as it will keep your
blood pressure low during the day
when you need it most.

10

Electrolyte sports
drinks will enhance your
workout
This is another one of those myths
that are costing the average person
a lot of money. Theoretically, a sports
drink should be beneficial for those
who exercise. It contains sodium, which
helps the body to retain water and
keep you hydrated, and it contains
sugar which your body burns for
energy. However, contrary to what you
may think, very few people exercise
hard enough to sweat away significant
amounts of sodium. There is even
some research that suggests consuming
popular sports drinks during or after
exercise does very little to add to
sodium levels in the body. Furthermore,
one has to train for more than two
hours continuously before your
carbohydrates stores in muscles will
start to run low. Thus, for the average
Joe, plain water is all you need.

21

News report
OFFER
More than $77 billion in IPOs were
announced in the US in 2013, including
Twitter’s 6 November offering, making it the
busiest year since at least 2010.

UPWARDLY MOBILE

than R4,000 a month on rent. Research by
First National Bank (FNB) shows all sectors
of the economy benefit from a growing
middle class, but “the biggest beneficiaries
are likely to be retail (especially luxury and
durable goods), finance, vehicle and the
construction industries”.
To get the report in its entirety, visit
www.unileverinstitute.co.za

19 NEW INCUBATORS

Recently released studies by the University
of Cape Town’s (UCT) Unilever Institute
of Strategic Marketing found that the
black middle class population had grown
to 4.2-million. This increase from the
1.7-million in 2004 goes hand in hand
with increased spending power. The black
middle class spends R400-billion annually,
far more than the R323-billion spent by the
historically wealthier white middle class.
The study classified middle class as
households earning between R15,000 and
R50,000, with their own transport, a tertiary
education, employment in a white-collar job
and owning their home or spending more

The Micro Enterprise Development
Organisation (MEDO) incubator was
opened by the Department of Trade and
Industry (DTI) in November 2013. Housed
at Maboneng in Gauteng, it is the first
youth incubator in the DTI Incubator
Support Programme and will focus on
the information and communication
technology (ICT) sector, as well as
having an Internet TV studio that can
facilitate Internet TV broadcast. There is
capacity for the permanent incubation
of approximately 20 ICT businesses
and virtual incubation across industries,
allowing small businesses to use the
facilities and benefit from the full suite of
shared services. In 2014 MEDO expects
to open 19 incubators to serve the
mining, manufacturing, energy, ICT and
hospitality industries.
For more info, see www.medo.co.za

TAPER
According to Credit Suisse, there is
widespread agreement about the
biggest risk to nearly every forecast
for 2014 – global monetary policy.
They recently sponsored the fourth
annual Emerging Market Leadership
Forum (a gathering of top business
leaders in Istanbul in November), and
the emerging consensus was that
the perceived risks all centre around
tapering – the if, the when, and the how
much – and its aftermath.

TOP STOCK
According to Bloomberg, the best
performing international stock in 2013
was Chongqing Changan Automobile
Co. With sales of automobiles surging
in China, car makers are building
factories to meet the demand. Ford
Motor Co´s main partner in China
– Chongqing Changan Automobile
Co – had sales in the third quarter
that were up 33% from a year earlier,
and its adjusted earnings per share
rose 400%. The worst performing
international stock was Brazilian oil
company MMX Mineracao e
Metalicos SA.
To see the rest of the Bloomberg
picks, go to www.bloomberg.com

ROUND UP 2014
CNBC reports that Oppenheimer expects the US stock market to continue its
bullish behaviour into 2014, with the S&P 500 index finishing the year at the oddly
coincidental figure of 2,014. The P/E model puts the price target at 2,060 while the
dividend-discount model prices the index at 1,96. If you calculate the resulting actual
average (2,013.5) and round up, you get 2,014 in 2014.
22

T

he winner of First National Bank´s (FNB) inaugural
Ideas Can Help competition, Michael Suttner, has
come up with a solution – The Lightie – to replace
paraffin as a light source. Across Africa 600 million
people spend up to 25% of their income
to light their homes with paraffin, and more
than two million deaths a year are caused by
paraffin-related accidents. His test tube-shaped
solar light bulb is brilliant not only because
of its design, but because of his distribution
concept. Piggy-backing on the most efficient
distribution network in Africa, namely via Coca
Cola, Suttner’s invention fits into the neck
of a two-litre plastic Coke bottle, using
the container as a sturdy stand-up lamp.

An eight-hour charge provides 40 hours of light at 120
lumens, enough to brighten a 120m² room. Once in full
production the Lightie should cost between R80 and R90
per unit, the cost of an hour´s worth of paraffin. The
award from FNB includes a R500,000 prize plus
a year of business services help from the bank's
Vumela Enterprise Development Fund. Suttner is
getting a lot of (deserved) attention. He also won
the Design Indaba Citizenship Competition (ABSA
social entrepreneur of the year award) and earned
R100,000 towards his invention as well as the National
Sasol/TIA Step-Up contest in the Green Energy Sector
which is providing him with almost R1,000,000 worth
of value. He is also still in the running for two big
competitions in 2014. Watch this space.
To find out more about The Lightie, go to
www.thelightie.com

The Lightie is a patentpending Picosolar light
bulb, which screws
into a soda bottle
creating a clean, lowcost lantern.

SWEET SPOT
Along with Citigroup, a number of major
international investment banks, such as
Deutsche Bank, UBS and Morgan Stanley,
are forecasting that European equities will rise by
double-digit percentage gains in the coming year,
outstripping the gains for their US counterparts. Low
valuations, continued strong central-bank support and
anticipated solid earnings growth are all likely to lead the
benchmark indexes to multiyear highs in 2014. The Wall
Street Journal’s MarketWatch.com says, “Forget about weak
economic growth in the Euro zone, deflation worries and
political turmoil – now it’s Europe buying time.”
Follow The Tell on Twitter @thetellblog
23

THINK TWICE

Bitcoin
By Parushan Moodley

Alternative Currency of the Future or the
World’s Next “Tulipmania”?

I

Bitcoin
World’s Next “Tulipmania”?
Alternative Currency of the Future or the

magine you are an advocate of women’s rights in Egypt and,
as a highly controversial and ground-breaking journalist in
your country, it is vital that you remain anonymous so as to
avoid harm because your articles are slowly gaining traction
and making waves internationally. You spread your message
via your WordPress blog and the time has come to evolve, to
expand your reach, upgrade your back-end and take your blog
to fresh eyes. How do you do this without a credit card or avoid
having a payment traced back to you? In November 2012,
Wordpress started to accept Bitcoin, and so too did Baidu,
before the Chinese Government imposed its ban.
Bitcoin is a new-age “digital crypto-currency” that is gaining
wider acceptance by retailers and individuals by the day.
Some companies have even started installing physical ATM
machines for Bitcoin transfers. Bitcoin is an alternative currency
that involves zero government regulation and no Central Bank
interference. Good-bye to the Federal Reserve? Not necessarily
– although Bitcoin is gaining recognition and the amount
of negative press is decreasing, it was initially condemned
by Central Banks and deemed a “scam”, simply because it
undermines traditionally accepted financial authorities and
Central Banks. Currently the Chinese government has declared
its non-tolerance of the virtual currency, which was followed by
Baidu halting its acceptance of the currency. Alan Greenspan
recently discussed Bitcoin in an interview aired on Bloomberg
TV where he stated he has nothing against it; however, he
personally cannot ascertain how to find “intrinsic” value in a
Bitcoin. All in all, Central Banks around the world do not seem
to be too optimistic about the currency.

WHO IS SATOSHI NAKAMOTO?
Satoshi Nakamoto is the Japanese creator of this digital
currency who vanished with absolutely no trace in 2010.

24

Some argue that “Satoshi” is an organisation or some sort of
pseudonym. Satoshi uploaded a comprehensive document to
the web in 2008 in the middle of the financial crisis in which he
outlined the advantages and effects of a non-regulated digital
currency. Whoever Satoshi is, Satoshi “mined” the first block of
Bitcoins which consisted of 50 Bitcoins.

LIMITATIONS, SUPPLY & DEMAND
There is a limit of 21 million Bitcoins which are mined in blocks at a
rate which halves every four years. Currently 25 Bitcoins are mined
every 10 minutes. At this rate, we expect the limit to be reached
by 2140. This limit is reached as “miners” solve complicated
crypto-puzzles in order to receive rewards in the form of Bitcoins.
The process of “mining” Bitcoins is extremely complicated and
technical and can be researched extensively online.
The essence of Bitcoin is that it involves zero Central Bank or
authoritative regulation, but is controlled by a network of users
who add transactions to a chain every time a Bitcoin is used.
In October 2012 the European Central Bank released a report
titled “Virtual Currency Scheme” in which it states that with
Bitcoin, fraud is quicker than the law.

Advantages
• Zero government regulation.
• Minimal transaction costs compared to those associated with
credit card transactions or bank charges when wiring money.
• The limitation on the number of Bitcoins in existence prevents
manipulation by way of a large influx or supply of the cryptocurrency.
• Allows transactions that weren’t possible for many reasons,
mainly political, to happen anonymously.
• The currency is rather secure if you consider the complex,
military grade cryptography involved.

photo by flickr.com/antanacoins

Analysis

Disadvantages
• It is quite a complex currency, which requires some getting used to and learning at first,
especially for non tech-geeks.
• There is some uncertainty as this is the first widely accepted virtual currency of its kind
and hence has no guarantees. The currency is only as strong as the system through
which it operates and the confidence the users have in the product.
• The anonymity has also allowed a number of illegal transactions to take place,
especially on the “deep-web”. Cases have included crimes such as the ordering of
illegal substances and the hiring of a hit-man.
• Still not widely acceptable.

CAN I MAKE A DOLLAR TRADING THIS THING?
The value of a Bitcoin is extremely volatile and is affected substantially and, in some cases,
arbitrarily by global economic and political events. Starting out in early 2009 with virtually
no value, to setting a benchmark value of $1 a few months later, Bitcoin made waves
when it hit $100 at the time of the Cyprian crisis. It then crashed to about $2 and recently
rallied to $1,200.
There are many who believe this is nothing more than a speculative bubble that is likely
to burst anytime between next week, next year or five years from now. In addition, there
is no way to conduct any form of reliable fundamental analysis; there is no residual
value or physical value in the tender. Its value is derived purely from speculation and the
acceptance of this currency globally. Some even compare it to “tulipmania” (see sidebar).

LOOKING FORWARD
Bitcoin is still in an evolutionary stage, or perhaps part of an evolution of the global
payment system. There is no sound method of valuating this currency or predicting
its movements. It is extremely volatile and, in my opinion, illiquid – which makes it
dangerous. The fact that Bitcoin has taken off and accrued value is amazing; however,
no single entity seems to be able to understand it entirely. Maybe you can make sense
of its virtual currency and let the rest of the world know how it is going to perform in
future, or if it even has a future.

TULIPMANIA

Tulipmania was the first major
financial bubble. In 1637, investors
began to madly purchase
tulips, pushing their prices
to unprecedented highs; the
average price of a single flower
exceeded the annual income of
a skilled worker. Tulips sold for
over 4,000 florins, the currency of
the Netherlands at the time. As
prices drastically collapsed over
the course of a week, many tulip
holders instantly went bankrupt.
Investopedia says: Tulipmania
reflects the general cycle of a
bubble: investors lose track of
rational expectations, psychological
biases lead to a massive upswing
in the price of an asset or sector, a
positive-feedback cycle continues
to inflate prices, investors realize
that they are merely holding a tulip
that they sold their houses for,
prices collapse due to a massive
sell off and many go bankrupt.
A similar cycle was witnessed
during the dotcom bubble.

ownships are often
seen as South Africaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s
constant reminder of a
painful past; they are the
ultimate representation of economic
inequality and disenfranchisement.
This view needs to be replaced with
one that portrays South African
townships as pots of gold filled
with opportunity for competition
and economic growth. The informal
economy constitutes approximately
28% of the Republicâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s overall
economy, still very high due to a
consistently high unemployment
rate, but the lowest among subSaharan countries. The impact of
such a large informal sector are,
among others, underutilisation of
resources and the abandonment
of potential tax income for
government. In order for South
Africa to experience a growth in
proportion to its potential, both the
public and private sectors need
to implement structures that will
integrate the informal sector with
the mainstream economy and
boost the competitiveness of the
market.

Fruit vendors, meat sellers,
car washes and spaza shops
(mini convenience stores) are all
enterprises that are commonly
found in townships. Mzoli’s Place – a
hot tourist and local’s destination
point for “braaied” meat and social
gatherings – started as one such
township venture in Cape Town’s
Gugulethu in 2003. The owner,
Mzoli Ngcawuzele, started cooking
and selling meat from his backyard
with just R2,000 as start-up capital.
With the increasing popularity of his
business, he acquired a loan from
the South African Development
Bank. These new funds enabled
Ngcawuzele, better known as Mzoli,
to become the meat mogul that
he is today. In addition to running
the enterprise that is Mzoli’s Place,

development were outlined. Issues
such as township residents not
working and spending in their
residential areas were identified. Also
discussed was the victimisation of
township entrepreneurs that used to
occur in the townships before South
Africa’s political transition. Before the
mid-1990s, the ANC was strongly
identified with communist ideology.
This created a threat against all
potential entrepreneurs in townships
as they represented a capitalist
approach which did not coincide
with the powerful ANC movement
at the time. This, along with the
repressing economic structures of
the National Party, created potholes
in township enterprise.
However, in the last 10 years there
has been an increase in efforts

“Bringing people together from all
walks of life through a piece of meat.”
Mzoli is also a big stakeholder in the
one of the few malls in Gugulethu,
Gugulethu Square. Mzoli is not the
only one to get involved in township
development. Richard Maponya,
owner of Maponya Mall in Soweto,
has also invested millions into what
is fast becoming a money tree for
Soweto residents. Maponya Mall has
more than 150 stores and employs
more than 1,800 people.
Initiatives such as Maponya Mall
keep income and expenditure
in Soweto, further enriching the
community. At the University of
Johannesburg conference themed
“Transforming Black Townships
Into Economic Powerhouses” in
2010, problems that deter township

to support Small and Medium Micro
Enterprise (SMME) development.
Initiatives such as the Gauteng
Township Enterprise Hubs
(TEHs), which launched in 2012,
and the Youth Entrepreneurship
Development Programme
are specifically designed to
counter youth unemployment by
encouraging and financing small
enterprises. Another venture is
the Gauteng Enterprise Propeller,
which has announced that it intends
to produce at least 1,000 new
businesses that are youth-owned
in the 2013/14 fiscal year. The
reason the focus is directed mainly
towards the youth is that they form
the bulk of the unemployment

Photos by Chris Kirchhoff/MediaClubSouthAfrica.com

27

statistics and they are also
the majority demographic
concentrated in the townships.
This is not a negative thing if
entrepreneurship is the main
agenda instead of the attempts
to mass-produce unskilled or
semi-skilled labourers, which
has clearly not worked as a
government policy.
Where government has
succeeded is with the National
Small Business Act, which aims
to protect small enterprises.
Simplistically, the Act classifies
businesses according to their
employment numbers and
annual turnovers. For example,
small businesses are ones
that employ under 50 people
and have an annual turnover
of between R150,000 and
R2 million. It is important
to establish the number of
potential SMMEs that could
flourish if given the guidance
and aid. In 2006, hawkers
(those who sell fruits etc on
the side of the road) had about
210,000 outlets and employed
about 415,000 workers. Small
shops had 127,000 outlets
and a total employment of over
320,000 people, roughly the
same amount as shebeens.
These statistics have increased
and within them lies the greatest
potential for entrepreneurship

and profit; and, thus, even
greater potential for large-scale
economic growth. It’s the kind
of growth that can only occur
through large-scale competition.
A competitive economy is
a healthy economy; a healthy
economy is a growing economy.
The structures that private
and public sectors should
create need to empower small
business owners with skills
and fresh approaches towards
enterprise. They also need to
create a platform for networking
and greater exposure for these
small business initiatives. We
need to build more channels
that enable loans to be
awarded to business owners
on the outskirts of Central
Business Districts: those in
rural areas and underdeveloped
townships. This will build the
economy from the bottom
up, a method that has proven
to work better than trickledown economics, especially
in African nations. So, for an
economy that is succulent and
rich, let’s start by giving Mzoli’s
some competition through
increasing the number of formal
meat vendors in Gugulethu.
More so, we ought to inject
competition into the chain
restaurant market and make
Mzoli’s a nation-wide franchise.

Watch an interview with Mzoli
http://youtu.be/HftJv-d7aIs
28

Photo by cape town tourism

Entrepreneurial Edge

29

the new investor

Investment
Schools of
By Mathew Piper

Thought

C

ommunism vs Democracy, Classical vs
Keynesian, Chocolate vs Vanilla, Cats
vs Dogs: Humans seem to find a way
to disagree about almost everything
in life, and investing is no different! So
how do we pick sides when it comes to managing
our money? What philosophy do we invest by? In a
field that seems so vast and complex, what are the
investing schools of thought?
There are two obvious methods over which
investors have been locking horns for years. One
side loves the thrill of luring the bull up the stairs just
long enough to see the bear drop out the window.
The other side immerses itself in business, financial
statements, and buying companies at bargain prices,
just in time to see the value come pouring in. There
are two men who epitomize both of these mindsets.
Fundamental vs Technical. Value vs Profit. Investing
vs Trading. Warren Buffett vs George Soros.

30

Pete Souza/The White House

Photo courtesy International Monetary Fund

Warren Buffett

“If a business does well, the
stock eventually follows.”

The Value Investor
• The richest man in the world.
• Over 20% average return per year for over 40 years.
• Is known for his love for Cherry Coke and McDonalds burgers –
both companies in which he owns stock.
Fundamental Analysis is the technique used by investors to
determine how much a company is worth, and what growth there
may be in the future. This form of analysis focuses on the “economic
well-being” of the company, rather than just the movement of its
stock price.

George Soros

Known as “The Man who

The Technical Investor
broke the Bank of England”.
• Doubled his $1 billion
hedge fund in one week with the devaluation of the Pound.
• Invests using a method called “Reflexivity” – which attempts to
predict market psychology.
Technical Analysis is regarded as the opposite of fundamental
analysis. This kind of analysis can be used on shares, bonds, forex,
or any other instrument. Technical analysis can be defined as the
study of three things:
1. Price movements
2. Time
3. The volume of shares traded
Over time, these three things together have created patterns that
many traders use to try and predict how the price of an investment

instrument will change. What technical analysts are trying to do is
understand what other traders are thinking, and then outsmart them
in order to make a profit. They support the view that the market and,
therefore, the price of a share does not move up and down because
of how well or poorly the company performs, but rather by how
much traders like or dislike that share. So, instead of understanding
the company, technical analysis attempts to understand people and
what they will do in different situations.
The field of technical analysis is based on three assumptions:
1. Prices move in trends: Most strategies in trading assume that
prices move in trends, and continue on that trend until broken.
2. The market discounts everything: They believe that all fundamental
factors, along with human psychology, are already built into the
price of the instrument, and thus do not have to be analysed
separately.
3. History has a tendency to repeat itself: People tend to react to
certain market conditions in the same way over time. If you can
predict this typical human psychology, you can, in some way,
predict the outcome of an event.
In 2000, traders mocked value investing, buying overvalued Internet
stocks claiming that it was a new era in business – right up until the
great Internet bubble burst, with companies losing over 90% in just
days.
Evidently, investors from both schools of thought have regular
and sufficient investment success stories among their followers,
otherwise it would have been a slam-dunk as to which school of
thought one should subscribe. Which young investor would not be
happy to end up having the success of either a Buffet or a Soros?

There are many different names for the same thing in investing. Shares are the
same as securities, and instruments refer to all types of investments, such as
shares, bonds, commodities, and forex.
31

the new investor

J

ust the other day I was sitting in
my Economics tut listening to
Dan Linegar ramble on. Ok, he
quite eloquently rambled on
to the next economics model
and then the rather controversial
Tokologo Phetla raised his hand.
We all knew this meant another long
and philosophical question, but that
day he raised a very important point:
“Why do we study all these models in
economics when what really influences
economics is the way people act? Surely
we should just study people and human
emotion?” Dan, a little ruffled after his
beloved Economics had come under
attack, set out to answer this question.
He suggested that although Economics
was shaped by the way people acted,
he reiterated that economic models
were used to simplify reality and help
economists make decisions. He did,
however, allow Tokologo the privilege of
agreeing that more time should be spent
learning how people make decisions.
By analogy, think of how financial
markets work and how the prices of
companies in the stock market fluctuate
as a consequence of human behaviour
more than anything else. How else can one
explain the years leading up to 2000 where
the prices of Internet-related companies
soared through the roof, even though
a large majority of the companies were
losing money? Why is it that the prices of
South African stocks precipitated during
the Financial Crisis in 2008? One would
have expected the share prices to have
dropped because of the exposure of
some companies to the US and European
markets, but the actual speed at which
they fell surely had to have arisen more
from just the technical and fundamental
analysis that usually precedes an
investment decision.
The way people make their decisions
has a lot to do with the way they feel.
Emotions – such as greed and excitement
– can push the price of companies up

Money
and
By Jack Newby

Emotion

Nasdaq
Points

source: Bloomberg

32

much higher than their intrinsic values. It
has been scientifically proven that when
a share price in an investor’s portfolio
goes up it stimulates the part of the
brain called the nucleus accumbens,
which is also stimulated when having
sex. This encourages humans to buy
more of this stock even though it
could be overpriced. This happened
during the “Dot-Com Bubble” where
investors saw the prices of their shares
rocketing and just kept buying more
to stimulate that nucleus accumbens.
Eventually people realised that the prices
of these companies were overpriced and
a tremendous sell-off ensued. But this
sell-off was not slow and accompanied
by thorough analysis on why these
companies were no longer the hot
thing. They occurred due to fear.
As investors saw these prices fall
sharply, the part of the brain called
the amygdala was stimulated, which
triggered the fight or flight response. So,
biologically humans were selling stocks
because their brains saw them as a
danger to their health. What ensued was
a massive sell-off. What makes this even
more interesting is that the companies’
intrinsic values didn’t change much during
this period of time. Companies such
as Yahoo!, whose share price reached
US$118.75 in 2000 and then dropped to
US$8.11 in 2001, earned more profit in
2001 than in 2000.
The graph on this page shows the
United States’ Nasdaq index, which is
heavily weighted in technology stocks
and where that huge spike around 1999
was predominantly caused by the surge
in human emotions. So, it appears that
Tokologo did raise a good point and
that we should pay more attention to
human emotion. If the role of emotion in
the investment game intrigues you at all,
read Your Money And Your Brain: How
the New Science of Neuroeconomics
Can Help Make You Rich by Jason Zweig
(Simon & Schuster, 2007).

the new investor

I

t is often quite daunting trying to choose a company to
invest in when there are so many out there, especially
when you are just starting out.
Shopping around for a stock is much like shopping
around for anything else, like clothes, or a new car. You
need to shop around for a bit until you find the right one. It

is not a good idea to be that compulsive shopper who buys
the first thing that you see. Just like shopping for anything
else, it is always important to consider your options.
With this in mind, we will go into a few easy things you
can do to start getting into the stock market, and choosing
your first company.

By Mathew Piper

INVEST IN WHAT
YOU KNOW
Considering the amount
of time it would take to
browse through every
company on the JSE, it
is always easier to invest
in something you know.
If you are a fashion guru,
why not try out some
retail companies? If you
are a UCT student and
love drinking beer, why
not try a beer company
like SAB Miller? This
is a good place to
start – with what you
know! Once you pick a
company, you can then
do the relevant analysis.
Warren Buffett
definitely invests
in what he knows
– Cherry Coke
and McDonalds
Burgers – two
of his favourite
foods, and
companies.

ANALYSIS

www
THE INTERNET
IS YOUR FRIEND
There are so many
websites out there that
make the investor’s life
easy. A good example
of this would be
www.bloomberg.com.
Under their personal
finance and watchlist
tracker, you will find
a lot of useful data in
the form of a stock
quote. There are other
websites such as
www.bullsnbears.co.za,
which do all the analysis
for you in a neat daily
newsletter.

f
latest newS

SOCIAL MEDIA
With the amount of time
you spend on Facebook
or Twitter, it can be
more convenient to
follow sources such as
@JSEwatch or “like” the
BullsnBears Facebook
page to get constant
information on the
market.
Twitter was
valued at over
$14 billion after
going public
in 2013.

THE NEWS
The world of news can
always spark an idea
about what to invest
in. Keeping a keen
eye on the market by
watching shows such
as CNBC’s Hot Stoxx
could be a good place
to start. There are so
many investors out there
giving their opinion, that
it may just spark a trade
idea for you.

Always make sure you
do proper research
into a company before
you decide to buy their
stock. There are many
techniques you can
use to find an attractive
company. The only
way to learn these
techniques is by reading
as many books as you
can about investing,
or to start talking to
people who have more
experience than you do.
You can visit
www.studentinvestor.co.za
to browse through
some very easy-to-read
articles to start you
on your way. The only
way to begin is to take
the plunge, and start
learning now!
33

Markets

the next big thing
By Gavin Dolley & 247WallSt.com

OF MILITARY SECRETS & SPIES

W

e live in an opportunistic
world. Ask any student who
has ever had half a chance
of getting a two-week extension on
any project deadline. We all know that
99% of them would have taken the gap
to hand in late. Some may even try for
more time.
It is this opportunism, when we look at
it in a more positive manner, that gives
rise to arbitrage or, in simpler terms, the
ability to fill a gap to your own benefit.
If Nigeria sells whiskey at $50/litre, and
Cameroon at $40/litre, someone will buy

it in Cameroon, trek across the border
and sell it at a profit. People are great in
scoring that way.
Much of success in business
depends on the ability to spot
arbitrage moments: To see gaps
where others miss it, and to come up
with cost-effective ways of servicing
that gap for profit. If you are a keen
investor, you should really be on the
look-out for dual arbitrage moments;
firstly, to spot those companies or
products that are really good at finding
gaps in their own industries. Secondly,

to find gaps in the way investors miss
valuing the stock of these kinds of
companies and buying in early.
The management guru, Peter Drucker,
around the middle of the 20th century,
identified seven major shifts in society
that tend to lead to innovation. The one
area that he somehow missed has been
the role of the military in developing
products that would later become
commercial successes. Here are
some of those success stories where
the world of the generals, spies and
spymasters eventually crossed over.

PANERAI WATCHES (1860)

photo by flickr.com/jwinfred

Panerai was deep in bed with the Italian navy from the late 1800s. It
patented luminescent material (Radiomir) whereby divers during both
World Wars could read depth, pressure and time underwater. They pushed
the envelope on depth and water resistance. Panerai remained a militarystyle watch until 1997, when South African luxury goods entrepreneur,
Johann Rupert, who owns Richemont, one of the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s foremost luxury
brand companies, saw the potential to cross-over Panerai into the public
commercial area. Sylvester Stallone (always on right wrist) and Arnie both
wore Panerai in popular movies and soon all of Hollywood wanted Panerai.
Today, it is one of the most sought-after luxury watches, and only a very
limited number are produced each year.

JEEP (1940s)
Driving a Jeep has become a kind of status symbol. It
shows a combination of rugged outdoorsy style with
urban panache â&#x20AC;&#x201C; quite the modern person. But, it was
in the war arena where the original Willys-Overland MB
first showed its mettle as an advanced scout vehicle
that had speed, versatility and the ability to navigate
across most terrains. The famous general Dwight
Eisenhower gave Jeep the ultimate compliment when
stating that without it, the Allied forces would not have
won the war. Jeep still manufactures for the military,
even as it fills up school parking lots with trendy
suburban mummies behind the wheel.
34

DUCT TAPE (1942)
There is a truth behind any jest, and you have all
heard the saying that one can fix any problem
as long as you have duct tape. There cannot
be a household in the universe that has not at
one time or the other turned to this magical
roll of ugly, sticky grey tape to fix a problem.
Yet, duct tape first started out in military green
colours during World War II, when Johnson &
Johnson’s Revolite Permacell division
developed the multi-purpose
tape known for its ease of
use, durability and waterresistance. It was used to
seal containers and fix
windows and equipment
during the war. Post-war,
duct tape got its boost from
the construction industry.

Much of success in
business depends on
the ability to spot
arbitrage moments.
To see gaps where
others miss it, and
to come up with cost
effective ways
of servicing
that gap
for profit.

GPS (EST 1959)
If you have to lob bombs and missiles over long distances and into areas that
you cannot see, geographical accuracy becomes a kind of necessity. But first,
the US Navy and Air Force developed this system in order to be able to navigate
better. As satellite technology improved, and the triangulation of positions
anywhere around the globe became increasingly possible with more and better
satellite signals, the sophistication of these systems also improved. Today, you
can locate your Aunt Betty’s flat in Kempton Park’s old age home when you
combine your GPS and some of the modern mapping systems. And, it is also
possible for us to know where you are! Next big thing – tracking your teenage
kids through the GPS positioning of their cellphones. No more sneaking off to
parties pretending to be busy with homework at a sleepover.

MICROWAVES (1945)
Its use for food preparation was accidental. A
Raytheon employee, working on military contracts,
realised that the chocolate bar in his pocket
had melted. That opened up a new universe for
the magnetron, originally the result of research
conducted on radio transmission and radar
detection. The magnetron produced much smaller
radio waves, known as microwaves, and was small
and powerful enough to be used in airplanes. Its
detection capabilities helped solve the persistent
problem of accurately bombing towns. In 1954, the
first microwave oven came to market.

35

lifestyle

Wakeboa
36

courtesy of red bull

rding
On Ice

Four of the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s best wakeboarders,
including legendary American rider Parks
Bonifay, recently embarked on a mission
to Patagonia in a quest to take the sport of
wakeboarding to the next level.

37

T

he stunning Lake Argentino in southern Patagonia was
the stage for the unique adventure featuring American
riders Parks Bonifay and Adam Errington as well as the
Argentinian duo of Cutún Martín and Tomas Karagozian.
Fed by the Upsala Glacier high above, Lake Argentino is
the largest freshwater lake in Argentina and home to many icebergs
that formed a perfect natural playground for the intrepid athletes.
“I studied the behaviour of the icebergs carefully before coming to
Patagonia and it was pretty clear that they are dangerous because
they can break or rotate at any moment,” commented Bonifay,
X-Games champion at the age of 14 and the first wakeboarder in
the world to land a 1080. “They are huge and uncontrollable. But
this incredible place makes you try to leave your fears behind and
enjoy this amazing experience with your board.”
The weather in the region is characterised by freezing
temperatures and winds of over 40 knots. The icebergs, some of
which are up to nine times larger than the section emerging from the
water, are in perpetual motion and can rotate at any time.
Unperturbed by the risks involved, the athletes searched for
blocks of ice with shapes that would allow them to slide their
boards, progressing from simple obstacles to more challenging
ones as their confidence grew. The tricks also quickly became
more sophisticated, with Parks laying out a huge 360 off a 45-foot
iceberg and his compatriot Errington stepping up to the plate with a
beautiful Switch Tail Press Backside 180. However, it soon became
clear that what mattered most was not doing the best trick but
being creative and taking the sport of wakeboarding to the next level
in an environment as beautiful and unique as it is inhospitable and
uncontrollable.
Los Glaciares National Park is located in the province of Santa
Cruz in Argentina. It was created in 1937 to preserve the Patagonic
ice fields and has been UNESCO World Heritage since 1981.

38

The icebergs, some of which are up to nine times
larger than the section emerging from the water,
are in perpetual motion and can rotate at any time.

39

lifestyle

twenty

BOOKS
thirty
TO READ BEFORE YOUâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;RE

Every generation faces its own issues
and pushes out the social frontiers to
some degree, yet the human condition
remains remarkably similar whether it be
war, famine, moonwalks or social media
that define a generation. Here follows a
list of must-reads that give some insight
into this journeyâ&#x20AC;Ś

40

Slowness
Milan Kundera (1995)

Through his portrayal of two tales of seduction
separated by more than 200 years, Kundera links
“slowness” with memory, and hence encourages us
to reduce the pace of our lives in order to truly live
our lives and appreciate them. The following quote
captures the inherent beauty of this novel:
“The man hunched over his motorcycle can
focus only on the present instant of his flight; he
is caught in a fragment of time cut off from both
the past and the future; he is wrenched from the
continuity of time... in other words, he is in a state
of ecstasy; in that state he is unaware of his age,
his wife, his children, his worries, and he has no
fear, because the source of fear is in the future,
and a person freed of the future has nothing to
fear.”

Guns, Germs & Steel
Jared Diamond (1997)

Through Guns, Germs and Steel Diamond
attempts to explain just why it is that some
civilizations have survived, and succeeded in
conquering others. He argues against the idea
that any domination is due to forms of intellectual,
moral or inherent genetic superiority, but is due
rather to geographic differences such as prime
agricultural land, and genetic differences such
as the development of resistance to endemic
diseases. All in all, it is a global account of the rise
of civilization and provides an explanation for the
development of humans across the globe.

Heart of Darkness
Joseph Conrad (1899)

A reading of Heart of Darkness is essential
to understanding the depth and complexity
associated with colonialism and imperialism on the
African continent. The story of Charles Marlow’s
journey as an ivory transporter down the Congo
River is in part an exploration of the definition of a
”civilized” man versus a “barbarian”. Conrad paints
an intrinsically harsh picture of colonialism and
justifications for it. However, Marlow’s objectification
of Africans within the novel is cause for concern
and reveals the imbedded nature of racism.

One Hundred Years of
Solitude
Gabriel Garcia-Marquez (1967)

This reverential and comical novel tells the
story of the rise and fall of Macondo through
the multi-generational history of the Buendía
family. It is a vivid and brilliant account of life
and death exposing the variety of human
experience. Garcia-Marquez effortlessly weaves
the personal with the political, and the amazing
family at the centre of the tale provides an
allegory for the history of the human race. The
skill of this author lies in the deep impression his
characters have upon our lives and the intense
sadness we feel when we reach the end.

Jitterbug Pefume
Tom Robbins (1984)

If you choose to read only one book out of
this list, pick this one. You either “get it” or you
don’t. If you’re not hooked within the first few
chapters, move on – this book is not for you.

The Little Prince
Antoine de Saint-Éxupery (1943)

If your parents didn’t read this book to you as
a child, you have been done a great injustice.
This poetic tale, although arguably only a
children’s book, makes several profound
observations about life as a whole and about
human nature at its simplest. A young prince
from another world falls to earth and meets a
pilot stranded in the desert. While the plot is
simple, the novel exposes the narrow-minded
perspective we come to adopt as adults, and
the inherent open-mindedness of children
which is ultimately invaluable to everyday life.
Similarly, this book teaches that enlightenment
can be gained from exploration and a key
sense of curiousity.

Zen and the Art of
Motorcycle Maintenance
Robert Persig (1974)

Quality and small things matter. Summed up in
the following line from the novel: “Sometimes it’s
a little better to travel than to arrive.”

41

lifestyle

The Last Lecture
Randy Paush and Jeffrey Zaslow (2008)

In 2007, Randy Paush, a Computer Science
Professor at Carnegie Mellon, gave his
last lecture entitled “Really Achieving Your
Childhood Dreams”. Surprisingly, even though
he had recently been diagnosed with terminal
cancel, his “last” lecture wasn’t about dying.
Rather, it was about living, about seizing the
moment and about overcoming difficulty.
The lecture was widely popular and, in 2008,
a book was written to cement the inspiring
words he spoke. Famously, it contains the
quote: “We cannot change the cards we are
dealt, just how we play the hand.”

For Whom the Bell Tolls
Ernest Hemingway (1940)

In much of Hemingway’s work, he constructs
what he deems to be a pre-metro idea of “the
alpha male ”, the characteristics of which
include an involvement in war, hunting, fishing,
fist-fighting and a fair amount of womanizing.
As a novel set during the Spanish Civil War
For Whom the Bell Tolls does not disappoint.
It tells the story of Robert Jordan, a dynamite
technician who is assigned to blow up a bridge
during an attack on the city of Segovia. It is
Jordan’s strong sense of duty which sets this
story apart from others. Ultimately, however, it
teaches us of courage and loyalty, sacrifice and
true love. If you read one Hemingway novel in
your life, we suggest that it’s this one.

Dune
Frank Herbert (1965)

Although not conventional or renowned in
the way that sci-fi authors such as Clarke or
Asimov are, Frank Herbert uses Dune to do
just what a sci-fi novel should do, and that
is to construct an incredible world outside
anything we could possibly imagine ourselves.
Through his story of a family living on the
desert planet Arrakis 21,000 years in the
future, he explores the multi-layered dynamics
of religion, technology, politics and human
emotion. Given the political upheaval in the
oil-rich Middle East, global warming and our
increasingly consumer-driven culture, it is
42

possible that Dune is even more relevant now
that when it was in 1965.

The Handmaid’s Tale
Margaret Atwood (1985)

This dystopian novel explores the life of
Offred, a handmaid in the fictional Republic of
Gilead, a totalitarian state which has replaced
the USA. Because of low human fertility and
reproduction rates, handmaids are assigned
to bear children for the elite and thus are
merely vessels in a world in which women
are taught to be completely subservient to
men. This novel stands both as a contrast
to and, in some cases, as a mirror for social
life in the 21st Century. It speaks of a rigid
political hierarchy, of minimal women’s rights,
of personal freedom and of language as a tool
of power.

Catch-22
Joseph Heller (1961)

To use the phrase “Catch-22” with any degree
of confidence, it is essential to read this novel
in all its complexity. Set during WWII the novel
follows Captain John Yossarian, a US Army
Forces B-25 bombardier as he struggles with
the absurdity of war and the absolute power
of bureaucracy. The ultimate Catch-22 within
this novel is that the only way to be discharged
from the army is to be declared insane, and
proving that one is insane requires a degree of
sanity. The novel also explores such themes as
the inevitability of death and the loss of spiritual
faith.

Brave New World
Aldous Huxley (1932)

Brave New World is a novel set in London AD
2540; a fantasy far in the future which seems
to cast a critical light on the present. This
enduring work of art anticipates technological
developments that allow for the creation of “the
ideal society”, a supposedly perfect human
race manufactured within laboratories. It is so
essential to read this novel in today’s day and
age because of the likeness between their
society and ours, in terms of consumerism,
the ubiquity of technology and the dangers of
obtaining too much power.

The Grapes of Wrath
John Steinbeck (1939)

Set during the Great Depression in America,
this novel tells the story of the Joad’s, a poor
family of farmers driven from their Oklahoma
home by drought, economic hardship and
changes in the agricultural industry. The Joad
family represent so many other families who
made the Western migration and suffered as
a result of a crumbling economy. The book’s
enduring legacy lies in the universal themes
of poverty and hardship, as well as the often
enduring capacity of human beings when they
are placed under pressure.

On the Road
Jack Kerouac (1957)

Through On the Road the wanderings of
Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty have come
to embody the Beat generation and a
counterculture which was prevalent at the time
of publication. The novel is considered to be
not only Kerouac’s defining work, but a defining
work of the time; a partly autobiographical story
of two friends travelling the North American
continent. It tells of the value of detachment
from society, as well as the loneliness that
accompanies the spirit of a wanderer.

Hell’s Angels
Hunter S Thompson (1966)

From one counterculture hero to another,
Hell’s Angels depicts the two years Thompson
spent living with the controversial motorcycle
gang in the mid-60s. His book also serves as
a snapshot of a particular time in American
history, when countercultural movements
were gaining momentum. Thompson, the
creator of Gonzo journalism, writes with fierce
honesty and without inhibition, and his style
of writing oozes vibrancy. You want to read
a book by a guy who believed in euthanasia
and arranged to have his own ashes blasted
from a cannon.

Slaughterhouse Five
Kurt Vonnegut (1969)

Kurt Vonnegut’s absurdist classic is a satirical
novel about WWII told through the life of Billy
Pilgrim, a soldier and later American prisoner

of war who is witness to the bombing of
Dresden. While the story is complex, and not
told in chronological order, it is worth a read
due to it’s exploration of intricate themes
such as free will, human senselessness and
fate.

The God Delusion
Richard Dawkins (2006)

The question “Who is God?” is often asked.
In reply, Dawkins ask why there should be a
God at all. An evolutionary theorist, Dawkins
gives a voice to atheism explaining that it
is not that atheists are devoid of belief, it is
just they don’t believe in personal gods. He
argues that belief in a personal god qualifies
as a level of delusion which he defines as an
enduring, yet incorrect belief held in the face
of strong contradictory evidence. He accuses
religion of causing not only discord, but war
and narrow-mindedness. Perhaps the most
daring thought in the book is when he asks,
in a world where different religions battle to
identify their purpose and meaning, whether
there need be any purpose.

Fear of Flying
Erica Jong (1973)

An iconic novel that documents the life of
Isadora Wing, a 29-year-old author of erotic
poetry. Unhappy in her marriage, she indulges
in her sexual fantasies with another man
while on vacation in Vienna. Through Isadora,
Jong creates an eternal tale of liberation,
womanhood and self-discovery, which is still
an inspiration to women everywhere.

Siddhartha
Hermann Hesse (1922)

In this novel, a young man named Siddhartha
embarks upon a spiritual journey of selfdiscovery, leaving his family for a restless
life of contemplation. Through his search for
enlightenment he comes to the revelation that
the only way to achieve this is to experience
life in its entirety, taking the good with the
bad. Just as the water of the river flows
into the ocean and is returned by the rain,
so everything in life is interconnected in the
classic circle-of-life sense.
43

ANALYSIS
by chad bushnell

OUTLOOK
FOR 2014

As we enter the new year, it is best to have
a view going into 2014 and position yourself
accordingly. The truth of the matter is that it
does not look good, at all.

B

going to destroy our economy from a growth standpoint. But
efore looking at the technical picture, let’s take note as
it has to be done.
to what happened in 2013 in terms of supporting the
market. First, we need to consider the phenomenon of
Let’s put this all into context. Our local market has had things
easing money in the form of Quantitative Easing (QE). Second,
very easy but this is going to change in the next year:
we need to look at the fact of a weak Rand against all major
1. International free money will flow out of our market.
trading pairs (USD/GBP/CHF/EUR), to the tune of around 25%
2. The Rand may strengthen from here, thereby pressuring the
on average. With a market that has 60% of its capitalisation
dual listed which are a huge portion of the weighting.
that is dual listed, there is no doubt that this has been a huge
3. Higher interest rates locally, when GDP is below 1%, could
benefit. Third, with interest rates being kept on hold locally at
very well send us back into recession.
fairly low levels, this has prompted big equity buying not only by
institutions, but also the largest retail investor allocating capital
So where does this leave us to invest looking
into equity funds in 2013.
into 2014?
So what’s going to change? QE is expected to start slowing
Well, one area we would not like to be involved in is that of our
in March, and personally I had a more dovish view on this
industrials. Industrials are meant to be the heart and soul of
before, but with recent economic data coming out of the US of
representing an economy, and due to the very lacklustre data we
late, especially in October/November even with a government
are receiving, along with the cold front expected to blow through
shutdown, the data was extremely good. The US 10-Year Yield
next year, it is wise to be taking some chips off the table. If
is currently around 2.8%,
you’ve played roulette, you’ll
and once the slightest hint of
know to keep your last chip on
Due to the very lacklustre data we are
tapering comes in again, this
the last winning number – this,
will push yields through the 3% receiving, along with the cold front expected in a market sense, would be
mark, which should add heavy
your last profitable trade in the
to blow through this year, it is wise to be
pressure to the equity market.
sector.
taking some chips off the table.
So what else?
The global story still most
certainly seems like the place
For three years the Rand
to be. But how does one get
has been spinning out of
exposure without the Rand punishing you on the downside?
control and has been down on average 60% against all
One way to trade in 2013 was to buy Global ETF’s (Exchange
major trading counters in that time. This has caused inflation
Traded Funds), as these give you exposure to a basket of
to increase to above the SARB target band of 3-6%, where
markets, currencies and, in turn, economies. But let’s get a
currently we are at 6.7%. This CPI figure, coupled with a
little ahead of ourselves and look for a punt. The tech story
Rand that is out of control, is going to force the SARB to
seems a bit frothy, but not bubbly, just yet. Social media, online
start hiking rates this year. So this would be a good thing,
gaming and online entertainment are still on the up, big time. So
right? Wrong. South African GDP came in at a dismal 0.7%
a multinational play such as Naspers could still be great and,
for the third quarter of 2013. Compare this to the US, which
more likely than not, it’s going to be one of the better performing
is growing at 3.6% with inflation more than half of that figure.
stocks in the coming months… again! But hey, everyone’s got
So, although a raise in interest rates is going to have a
their own crystal ball; that’s what makes a market, right?
positive effect on our currency market and inflation rate, it’s

44

Contributed by

the new investor

www.hedgefund-sa.co.za

A Hedge Fund is a private investment vehicle that markets to only a few select institutions
and or high net worth individuals, for which it then charges a performance fee and an
administrative fee, traditionally 20% and 2% respectively, to leverage its trade ideas.
Hedge Funds may make use of short selling, leverage and
derivatives to assist in developing an alternative investment
strategy, to generate absolute returns that should in essence be
uncorrelated to the markets.[1]

What are Hedge Funds?
Hedge Funds are pools of private capital generally structured as
a limited partnership with the objective of consistently achieving
returns exceeding the market by investing in a variety of asset
classes and by using non-traditional investment strategies,
including short selling, leverage, derivatives and arbitrage.[2]
To “hedge” is to lower overall risk by taking on an asset
position that offsets an existing source of risk. A “fund” is a
reserve of money set aside for special purposes. A Hedge
Fund may, therefore, be defined as an information-motivated
fund that hedges away all or most sources of risk not related
to the price-relevant information available for speculation.[3]
The primary aim of Hedge Funds is to deliver above market
average returns while simultaneously reducing volatility
and risk. Hedge Fund managers are always on the lookout
for opportunities that might bring impressive returns at a
reduced risk.

How Do They Work?
The term Hedge Funds is used to describe a diverse group
of financial institutions, which play a vital role in our financial
system. Hedge Funds are an aggressively managed portfolio of
investments that uses advanced investment strategies such as
leverage, long, short and derivative positions in both domestic
and/or international markets with the goal of generating

high returns (either in an absolute sense or over a specific
benchmark).
Hedge Fund managers have tremendous freedom to invest
in just about any area where they believe they can outperform
the market. This freedom gives them the ability to trade different
securities simultaneously in several markets to maximize
opportunities for returns, improve risk management, and spur
on innovation in financial products, services and strategies.

What Strategies Do Hedge
Funds Use?
Hedge Funds have been described as funds that make use of
skill-based investment strategies. Skill-based strategies obtain
returns from a unique set of skills or strategies of the fund
manager. As a result, hedge funds have also been described as
funds that run absolute return strategies.
Since Hedge Funds are actively managed, manager skills
are certainly very important, as are the basic trading strategies
behind most Hedge Fund investments. However, more recently,
Hedge Fund returns have been shown to be driven largely by
market factors, such as changes in credit spreads or market
volatility. This leads some academics to believe that a Fund’s
returns are a combination of both a manager’s skill level and the
underlying investment strategy.
With the increased use of Hedge Funds, industry practitioners
and academics have created a set of strategy performance
measurements that can be used as benchmarks for investors.
Investors should note that each strategy has its own approach
to performance presentation, manager selection, and
investment style.

MBUTUMA
She just hit 33, yet has been an
Executive Director of Pentad
Quantity Surveyors since 2011,
a position she reached after
joining the profession a mere 13
years ago. Sandi Mbutumaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s star
shone even brighter when she
recently took top honours at the
10th annual Top Women Awards
2013 held in Johannesburg and
walked away with the Young
Achiever Award. Mbutuma is a
shareholder in Pentad and the first
female Director at her company in
an industry where a mere 1% of
executive management is female.

46

W

hat makes Sandi Mbutuma’s rise so
interesting are two things. Firstly, to study to
become a Quantity Surveyor (QS) requires
real mathematical aptitude, and our society
tends to think women do not have that talent. Mbutuma’s
success evidently belies that. Then, secondly, Mbutuma’s
workplace is by and large in the construction environment,
yet another male domain, and here too she is helping to
shatter the glass ceiling. In fact, she is on the speaker
circuit discussing this very topic.
In an interview just after receiving her award, Mbutuma
explained that her company is at the forefront of building
development, specialising in corporate head offices and
office park developments; retail developments, including
refurbishments and fit-outs; hotel and leisure projects; and
residential facilities, nationally and internationally. “A typical
day at the office for me,” she says, “entails ensuring that my
projects are adequately resourced and efficiently running,
meeting clients to ensure client satisfaction, and meeting
potential clients. I’m constantly in communication with
the other shareholders about matters of the business.” It
is a dynamic set-up and one can see where Mbutuma’s
abundant energy obviously works
in her favour. “My role is to attract
business from clients we have
never engaged with for business
transactions. In a space of six
months, I managed to secure
projects to a value of over R1.5
billion with various clients. At
Pentad, I have also introduced
Women Events to create a networking platform for women
who have been forced to accept the landscape of how
men socialise.”
It had been a long academic slog for Mbutuma to reach
her current position. She started with a national diploma
and followed it with a B Tech in Quantity Surveying at the
University of Johannesburg. She then did a Programme
in Management Development at the Gordon Institute of
Business Science (GIBS) in Jozi and thereafter completed
a Programme in Property Development at the University of
Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business (GSB).
Mbutuma is no stranger to awards, previously having
been nominated as a Rising Star in the Women in Property
Network. If one was looking for a good case study of how
networking – professionally, privately and in public life –
may enhance your career and profile, Mbutuma would
be it. During her time in the industry she established a
network through her involvement with an impressive list of
professional and other membership bodies.
Amidst her professional responsibilities, Mbutuma has

also been involved with social responsibility initiatives
whereby she used to volunteer at a place of refuge in
Midrand, acted as a donor for inner city missions dealing
with homeless and terminally ill children, and through yet
another organisation, NNAQS, she has been involved with
the Johannesburg Welfare Society. In 2010, she started
a partnership with two primary schools – Mdanstane and
Zukisa Primary School, by donating funds to assist the
schools on their projects – such as for the installation of
burglar proofing to the computer laboratory at Mdanstane
and the sponsorship of Grade 1 students’ uniforms, sports
equipment, and more at Zukisa. In 2014, Mbutuma and the
schools will be organising an awards event to celebrate the
achievements of the students and teachers in an attempt to
instill a culture of excellence.
Mbutuma is on record that her professional success is
driven by and large by her passion for the development
of South Africa’s infrastructure so that employment and
economic opportunities can be boosted. The balance she
maintains between charitable work and professional time
bears testimony to her deep commitment to our society.
In 2014, she will be part of a new TV show on a satellite
Christian TV station educating
people about property matters
and residential issues, as well
as problems they experience
with retail or municipal services.
This is putting her passion into
practice.
Has all this success gone
to Mbutuma’s head and
changed her into another Jozi Bling Queen? On her
Facebook wall, she posts the following, “I have a very
bad relationship with cars. My car of almost 7 years has
some elements that are due for replacement, very costly
if I may add. I drive cars until they are deemed unsafe or
not roadworthy. I hate spending money on cars.” Yet, she
also seems to have her eyes on a diamond ring, hangs
around in cool spots and travels out of the country (likely
for work). Pentad has clients all over Africa as well as the
Indian Ocean islands such as Seychelles and Mauritius.
She comes across as a young professional dedicated to
her career and working hard at making time for her family,
friends and some social life. In juggling all those roles,
she is very typical of the modern woman, who seems to
believe one can have it all.
Mbutuma signed off the day on Facebook recently with
the following message, which we believe may set the
tone for the new year: “I’ve always worked very very hard,
the harder I worked the luckier I got... Opportunities avail
themselves to those who always show up...”

“Opportunities avail
themselves to those who
always show up...”

47

ENTREPRENEURIAL EDGE SOCIETIES

FOCUS ON

O

ur nine-member core of Ákro Organisation are all running successful Startups of their own across various sectors, including operations from social
tech initiatives, mobile applications and community websites to real estate,
consulting services and even mobile petrol sales. In fact, some have formed holding
companies to house multiple subsidiaries. One member runs a property group, Basday
Properties. Another is taking on a tech initiative. Others are consulting to the Lesotho
government through their corporate consulting group, and another runs a group of
companies in the tech and education spheres.
We aspire to motivate and inspire the youth of South Africa to challenge the status
quo and develop their entrepreneurial character. Ultimately, we aim to address some
of the most fundamental and central issues faced by our country – the slow state of
entrepreneurial initiative and the rate of youth unemployment.
Our organisation believes in passion. Our intention is to become South Africa’s
entrepreneurial engine, fuelling entrepreneurs and businesses by presenting opportunities
to learn, network and leverage off each other’s knowledge, resources and enthusiasm.

WHAT WE DO

Ákro is a non-profit organisation that
seeks to bring together some of the
brightest entrepreneurial minds in South
Africa, with a collective goal of inspiring
youth entrepreneurship and innovation
by building powerful business networks.

Ákro seeks to involve itself in anything that will add value towards our members’
entrepreneurial exposure. We see our members continuously involved in activities
such as talks, seminars, entrepreneurial courses, blogging, consulting and business
coaching.
Last August, Ákro hosted its annual Young Leaders Summit at the Colosseum Hotel
in Century City. The event saw a number of impressive industry leaders and ambitious
entrepreneurs coming together to teach, learn and inspire each other. The day was a
huge success, seeing our members light up with motivation and the desire to begin
their own entrepreneurial adventure.
Our ancillary events have seen involvement from Ernst & Young, Acsis Fund
Managers, Traders Corner, Legacy Hotel Group and venture capitalists such as UStart.
We are all connected by a passion for business and entrepreneurship, constantly
encouraging each other to be as brilliant, innovative and hard working as possible.

WHY YOU SHOULD JOIN US
Essentially, we are a society for the people of entrepreneurship. Ákro would like our
members to realise their entrepreneurial qualities and find ways to pursue their own
endeavours.
Ákro aims to grow small steps at a time, with the fundamental vision of inspiring and
guiding young leaders to bring out the passionately curious entrepreneurs inside all our
members.
The true measure of one´s education is not what one knows, but how one shares
what one knows with others. We encourage young entrepreneurs with ideas to
act upon their thoughts with conviction and we aim to assist these actions in any
manner possible. We wish to create a community based on principles of goodwill,
growth and sharing. And, if we have inspired just one member, then we are
profitable in the rightest sense.

Ákro [uhkróu] – Ancient Greek translation: “Extreme”. The Ákro Organisation is a collective of the most brilliant entrepreneurial minds
within its reach. Our goal is to be the fabric of change in the world, to create our own economy through entrepreneurialism.

CONTACT
48

Ákro is based at University of Cape Town. If you want to join or find out more, contact
Tom Raviv 083 292 2733 | Jason Basel 079 073 9860 | f Akro Organisation

The Benefit Of
Starting To

Save
early
W

going to do next. In all but the most extreme situations, the cost
of putting off saving exceeds the benefit of starting at the bottom.
This is because even money that has decreased in value is a better
contribution to a long-term objective than money that has been spent
on short-term gratification. And while it is easy to justify spending
now, with the rationalisation being that you’ll save more later when
you can afford it, it is very difficult to get into the habit of saving if
you’re used to having all of your income at your immediate disposal.

hether you are saving towards a short-term goal, perhaps
an overseas trip, or something that seems to be a long
way away, like a deposit on your first house, or your
retirement, it’s a good idea to start now.
Each month that you put off saving in favour of spending either
increases the amount that you will have to save in the remaining
months, or pushes out the date at which you will reach your goal.
Starting to save earlier allows you to extract maximum benefit from
compounding – i.e. that powerful phenomenon that explains how
investments can grow so remarkably if given time. Like many people
you may have questions about the “right time” to invest. The right time
is now, because you can’t get time back once you’ve spent it.

Make a start
The easiest way to get on track to meeting your goals is to start as
early as possible. If you start from your very first paycheque, you’ll
never feel like you’ve lost something by saving instead of spending
now. And the little bit of short-term gratification that you miss out on
will be worth it when you are on that overseas trip with your friends,
or are handed the key to the front door of your new home.
To learn more about investing visit www.allangray/investingexplained/.

Time in the market vs timing the market
It is true that you receive better value for money if you invest after the
market has fallen, rather than at its peak. However, this doesn’t mean
that you should put off saving if you are unsure what the market is

Graph 1

shows that if investments are returning 9% per
year and you need to meet your savings goal in 10 years’
time, delaying saving for just 18 months will increase the
amount you need to save per month by more than 25%.
With less time on your hands, the cost of a delayed start
is naturally even more pronounced. The red line on the
graph illustrates that when your timeframe is five years, an
18-month delay results in more than a 50% increase in the
amount required per month of saving.

5 year obtective

Required increase in monthly contribution

10 year obtective

Delay before starting to save (months)

ENTREPRENEURIAL EDGE

THE
STARTUP
BUS
MAKING
CHANGE
MAKERS

StartupBus is an annual
entrepreneurial road
trip during which the
“Buspreneurs” conceive,
build, and launch a start-up.
In November 2013, for the
first time, the StartupBus
travelled through Southern
Africa, bringing together 15
African and 15 international
entrepreneurs along with
10 mentors. It was a truly
unforgettable journey...

50

WHAT IS STARTUP BUS AFRICA?
StartupBus Africa brought together 40 highly experienced
African and international entrepreneurs on a 5-day
road trip from Harare, Zimbabwe to Cape Town, South
Africa. The goal is to support entrepreneurs in Africa,
help international entrepreneurs understand the African
market and create lasting ties between both – and finally,
of course, the founding of new start-ups in the areas of
interest.
Participants were coders (50%), designers (25%) and
business developers (25%), all focused on the areas of
mobile, healthcare and energy. During the trip they paid
visits to local start-up hubs and worked with mentors
from across their focus fields. At the end, they presented
their work to a panel of highly esteemed investors and
entrepreneurs at eKasi, Khayelitsha. The proceedings
raised from the event are being used to help fund the
StartupHouse in Africa, another first for the continent and
which will offer space for entrepreneurs and their teams.
From an app that can help determine the cost of bribes
to an initiative that wants to help solve Southern Africa’s
unemployment issues, all initiatives presented at the end
of StartupBus Africa aimed at solving local issues.

The winner was an innovative initiative called “Workforce”, which can simply be described as being a mobilepowered planning app for connecting workers and employers. Runner-ups were funeral management app
Funeral.ly and Bribed, which has a really interesting way of tackling bribery issues across Africa. Take a look at
all eight start-up pitches below:
Workforce is a mobile-powered planning app for
connecting workers and employers. The platform is meant
to link unskilled worker teams with potential employers
through an SMS-based communication system. This
application intends to bring innovation to the unskilled
labour force and both bridge and identify the gap between
employee and employer in Africa.

Sterio.me is committed to revolutionising mobile
education for young Africans in remote locations
through reinforced learning via a simple phone call
from a teacher. Teachers can pre-record lessons and
give students a unique SMS code which gives them
access to learning material or a quiz.

Funeral.ly One of the runner-ups, Funeral.ly is
described as wanting to be the Everbrite for funeral
management. The app focuses on providing and
simplifying streamlined event management for families.

HumAid wants to make aid delivery efficient. The
app aims to use the data of different organisations,
such as on-the-ground NGOs, to help focus aid
delivery and organisation decision-making so that it
becomes more efficient.

Bribed The other runner-up, Bribed is a crime-solving
app with a twist. The aim is to crowdsource the price of
bribes to provide real-time market prices. By doing this, the
team not only hopes to help victims of bribes pay a “fair
amount”, but also to capture and provide data that should
help authorities prevent corruption.

GreenBack is an app-powered points scheme
that lets people raise funds and pay for clean, solar
energy for families across Africa. This eco-friendly
initiative wants to reward carbon savers in the
developed world by providing credit to Africans to
help access clean energy.

Pela24 wants to help people from rural areas to
diagnose symptoms and better identify disease. This
would be done through a mobile diagnosis tool that will
then give users information about a disease they may be
suffering from and show them where the nearest doctor
or clinic is to seek treatment.

Pitch Me If You Can is a mobile matchmaking
app for Start-ups to pitch their ideas to potential
investors or co-workers. Similar to a dating site, the
app aims to serve as a platform to match investors
with entrepreneurs’ good ideas in a quick and easy
manner.

“Participants will tell you that
StartupBus is the mother of all
hackathons... Imagine building
a real start-up in a compressed
time capsule traveling at 60 miles
per hour.”
– Falon Fatemi, Partner at MkII Ventures,
VentureBeat Contributor

“StartupBus isn’t just a hackathon on a
Greyhound bus. It’s also a self-starter alumni
organization that’s isn’t only about who you
know. It’s built on ambition, ingenuity, and
rest-stop hot dogs. StartupBus might not
yield the next Instagram, but it just might
build the ecosystem for it.”

“The intensity develops
lifelong relationships,”
Bizannes said. “Ten years
later with the trust and
responsibility people
developed can bring them into
new businesses together.”

– Greg Voakes, Huffington Post

– Tomio Geron, Wall Street Journal

51

ENTREPRENEURIAL EDGE

WHAT’S IT REALLY LIKE?

Q&A with Busprenuer, Matthew McElligott, who is also a cofounder of BullsnBears, Student Investor and The Money Tree
magazine.
THE Money Tree (TMT): What team where you on and
what was your role?
MATTHEW MCELLIGOTT (MM): I was team lead for Pela24.
I was doing the business sides of things but also helping out in
the development where I could.

JOIN THE MOVEMENT
The first StartupBus toured the USA in 2010. Since then,
more than a dozen buses a year have visited a variety
of cities all over the world. In the aftermath of other
StartupBus tours each year, participants have not only
founded successful companies but also identified new
employers, employees, co-founders and business partners.
With this first initiative having come to an end, it’s yet to be
determined what the future holds for these start-ups and their
participants. One thing’s for sure, the connections made will
have a deep impact on Africa’s tech scene and the lives of
each of those who embarked on this journey.
StartupBus Africa 2014 is already accepting applications on a
rolling basis – and space is extremely limited... so apply ASAP!
Go to www.africa.startupbus.com
To get a sense of what it’s like on the bus,
check out this video:
http://youtu.be/vvzPg-wxpYg

52

TMT: What experience did you have before the StartupBus
that got you chosen to be a participant?
MM: I am currently involved in four different start-up companies
in sectors ranging from the financial industry to the low-cost
smartphone manufacturing industry to the software and app
development industry.
TMT: What do you think was the greatest experience on
the bus?
MM: The best experience I got out of the bus was being able
to work with a diverse group of people from all over the world.
This has enabled me to create a great network of people across
the globe.
TMT: Were there any problems or difficulties on the bus?
MM: Yes! Most difficult was having no wifi or power for most
of the bus trip, which made it extremely difficult to actually get
stuff done. A lot of the teams had to resort to programming on
pieces of paper and then transferring the code as soon as we
got power back.
TMT: Would you do it again or recommend other people
to apply?
MM: I would definitely go on the bus again. They are planning
to do another African one in 2014 so I highly recommend
people apply for it.

lifestyle

Lamborghini

54

The new Lamborghini
Veneno Roadster
recently made its
public debut on board
the Italian naval aircraft
carrier Nave Cavour
in December when
the limited edition
super sports car, of
which only nine will be
produced, was formally
unveiled on the flight
deck of the 240-metre
ship while docked
in Abu Dhabi’s Mina
Zayed port.

Veneno Roadster
T

he Lamborghini Veneno
Roadster is a fully roadlegal, open top car, bringing
the aerodynamic efficiency of a
racing prototype to the road, with
extreme design and breath-taking
performance. The nine units will
be built during 2014, priced at
€3.3 million, excluding taxes.
With a maximum power output
of 552kW/750hp, the V12 Veneno
Roadster accelerates from 0 to
100km/h in just 2.9 seconds, with a
top speed of 355km/h. It is driven by a
12-cylinder engine with a displacement
of 6.5 liters and is equipped with the
extremely fast-shifting ISR transmission
with five modes, permanent allwheel drive and a racing chassis with
pushrod suspension and horizontal

spring/damper units. Shown in Abu
Dhabi in the specially developed colour
– “Rosso Veneno” – each client will
be able to individualise the colour of
his Veneno Roadster to suit his or her
personal preference.
The Veneno Roadster is extreme
and guarantees an intense driving
experience – because open means
truly open. There is no roof, just a
strong rollover bar for optimum safety.
The design is focused on optimum
aerodynamics and stability through
fast corners – with handling akin to
that of a racing prototype. Yet it is
fully road-legal. Every detail of its form
pursues a clear function – exceptional
dynamics, optimum downforce with
minimal drag and perfect cooling
of the high-performance engine.

Therefore the Veneno Roadster
is unmistakably a Lamborghini; it
sticks firmly to the consistent design
philosophy of all the super sports cars
from Sant’Agata Bolognese. That
includes the extreme proportions, as
well as the powerfully arrow-shaped
front end and the interplay between
razor-sharp lines and precise surfaces.
The entire design of the Veneno
Roadster has been laid out for perfect
airflow and downforce. The front end
works as a large aerodynamic wing.
The visual division of the rear fenders
from the car body is a reference to
the world of racing cars and optimizes
the aerodynamic flow. The smooth
underbody transitions into a substantial
diffuser framing the four sizable
exhaust pipes divided by a splitter.

55

Every detail of its
form pursues a clear
function – exceptional
dynamics, optimum
downforce with
minimal drag and
perfect cooling of the
high-performance
engine.

Large openings serve to ventilate the
engine bay and direct airflow to the
rear wing. The design of the adjustable
rear wing is the product of motorsport
experience and extensive aerodynamic
simulation to ensure optimum airflow in
the interaction of the rear wing with the
rear diffuser.
The design of the exclusive alloy
wheels is also determined by
aerodynamic functionality – a carbonfibre ring around the wheel rim works
like a turbine to deliver additional
cooling air to the carbon-ceramic
brake discs.
The Veneno Roadster is further proof
of Lamborghini’s unique competence
in CFRP-based lightweight design.
A monocoque made from carbonfibre reinforced polymer forms the

56

basis of the Roadster. All exterior
parts are made from CFRP. The
Veneno Roadster meets all safety and
registration requirements worldwide,
and naturally also incorporates a full
complement of safety systems from
airbags through to the adapted ESP
handling system.
Carbon fibre dominates also the
interior of the Veneno Roadster.
The carbon fibre monocoque is
visible inside the car around the
central tunnel and the sills. The two
lightweight bucket seats are made
from Lamborghini’s patented Forged
Composite. The woven carbon-fibre
CarbonSkin is used to clad the entire
cockpit, part of the seats and the
headliner. Like a hi-tech fabric, this
extremely fine-looking carbon-fibre

matting fits perfectly to any form and
reduces the weight of the vehicle.
The systematic, carbon-fibre,
lightweight design of the Veneno
Roadster is not only visible, it is also
evident on the scales: with a dry
weight of just 1,490kg (3,278 pounds),
the Veneno Roadster benefits from a
power-to-weight ratio of just 1.99kg/
hp (4.38lbs/hp) which guarantees
a performance that is nothing short
of mind-blowing. Even the stunning
acceleration figure of 2.9 seconds
cannot adequately describe it. Despite
an aerodynamic setup configured
for extreme downforce, the Veneno
Roadster possesses exceptionally low
wind resistance which is what allows it
to reach that top speed of 355km/h.
Order yours now!

55

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HOW AWESOME
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Tuition
fees
Accommodation
with meals
Accommodation
with meals
Travel and book allowance
Travel
andfor
book
allowance
Incentives
good
performance
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performance
Academic for
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emotional
support
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and emotional
support
Good networking
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Good
networking
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work fromopportunities
second year
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The Old Mutual edge to keep you going
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One-on-one
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afterexposing
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In-house rotation programme exposing you to various aspects
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Working
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omms 01.2014
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different fields,
shaping South industry-leading
Africa’s financialexperts
future. in
Working
with acknowledged
different fields, shaping South Africa’s financial future.

The reward
the end of the journey you will join an elite, talented pool.
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Preference will be given to black South African learners i.e. Africans,
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Old Mutual is a Licensed Financial Services Provider
Old Mutual is a Licensed Financial Services Provider

lifestyle

by luka vracar

I

f you think for one moment that you can get away
with being one of those men who refuses to wear
a tie, and that this gives a unique rebelliousness
to your individuality, you fail to realise that ties
have been a fundamental element of men’s attire for
centuries.
You can thank the Croatians for inventing the
cravat, a precursor to the modern day necktie, some
350 years ago. We ought to wear ties with pride, as
they are one of the few items of fashion that men
can truly call their own. But fear and ignorance of
style has made us snub the tie, and for decades
it has been butchered by used car salesmen and
highschool teachers for this very reason.
Ties should not be seen as some grey symbol of
the corporate world – a set of reins for your boss
to yank. The tie is essentially a fashion accessory
that is meant to be fun and worn together as part of
a suit in order to show off mood and style – that’s
why they come in such an endless variety of colours
and designs. And all of these colours and patterns
are permissible as long as you use them the right
way. Use complementary colours and make sure
the pattern on your tie does not match the pattern
on your shirt. But do not be afraid either to do
your own thing. Yes, they can be uncomfortable,
we do get that, but they also look good – and it’s
not like you are being asked to wear 7-inch heels
for a whole night. Man up. Chances are that if it is
uncomfortable, you’re wearing it wrong. It might
not be entirely your fault, though, as there are
some 85 ways to knot a tie, and that excludes
bow-ties, ascot ties and bolo ties – it seems the

58

average man needs nautical training just to be able to
make it to work in the morning. Having said that, as
a South African male you have probably endured at
least five years of compulsory tie-wearing during your
highschool years, so you should be familiar with the
common Four-in-Hand knot at least. In fact the Fourin-Hand together with a Half-Windsor are the only
knots you will ever need. That’s good enough. Get a
mirror and get practising.

Stray from these suggestions and
people will prefer to talk to your
supervisor:

images courtesy of label orange

• The bottom of your tie should just touch the
middle of your belt buckle. Styles and shapes
change, length doesn’t.
• Skinny ties are only for fitted and personallytailored suits that are in proportion with the tie.
• The material tag on the back of the tie does not
need to be used to tuck in the thinner end of
the tie. In fact, let it fly loose!
• Ties are fragile. Take them off gently and never
ever leave them knotted.
• Roll your ties. If the tie is creased, hang it for
a day to let the crease fall out, then roll the tie
loosely around your hand. Never hang knitted
ties, as they will stretch.
• Matching the colour of your tie to the colour
of your shirt, even if they are slightly different
shades, is dated. Don’t do it.
• The only embellishments you are allowed are
a solid gold or sterling silver clip. That’s it. No
exception.
The guys at Cravatta Pelliano have taken a bold step forward
in resurrecting the tie with a product range of striking Italian
knitted ties named after some of the most stylish fictional
characters. The young Dutch company even offers a range
of colourful bowties for those brazen enough. They are now
available in South Africa and you can purchase one of these
badass yet stylish ties at www.labelorange.com.

59

lifestyle

999 Ways
999 Ways
to navigate the seven seas

F

or over 166 years, Swiss watchmaker
Ulysse Nardin has been creating
some of the most reliable marine
chronometers in existence. With its addition
to the Marine Diver collection, the Blue
Seas, this manufacturer from Le Locle firmly
establishes its reputation as a cutting-edge
watchmaker.
For the novice luxury watch follower, allow
us to explain some terminology. A timepiece
does just that â&#x20AC;&#x201C; it keeps time. A chronograph
has some advanced movements â&#x20AC;&#x201C; watchspeak for additional functionality â&#x20AC;&#x201C; that
allows it to measure distinct elements of
time, for instance how fast Usain Bolt can
run the 100 metres at the London Olympics.
Most often, this functionality is controlled
through pushing stop and start buttons
added to the watch. A chronometer, as
produced with regularity by Ulysse Nardin,
is a chronograph of extreme accuracy. Now
you should understand in what company of
watchmaking we are with Ulysse Nardin.
Resolutely anchored in aquatic sports, the
brand new Blue Sea is designed to tackle
extreme conditions. It perfectly combines its
dual function as a diving instrument and a
beautiful watchmaking piece. Blue Sea has a

60

self-winding movement featuring a 42-hour
power reserve indicator, oversized small
seconds and large date display.
Its stainless-steel case, 45.8 millimetres in
diameter, has been specially treated with a
sophisticated vulcanisation process giving
it a blue rubber coating with a remarkable
appearance and a truly comfortable feel. Its
exhibition case-back reveals the self-winding
movement, also blued. The non-moving
metal parts of the movement have been
treated with a stainless blue titanium based
alloy. To enhance its look, a wave pattern
adorns the structured strap and dial. The
hour markers and hour and minute hands
are covered with blue luminescent material
for improved readability. Fitted with a
unidirectional rotating bezel and screwed
crown, the case is water-resistant to 200
metres. The reliability of the Blue Sea is
further strengthened by an exclusive black
ceramic folding clasp and a blue rubber strap
with ceramic components.
This edition is limited to 999 pieces, each
individually numbered and, at the heavy price
tag of approximately R90,000 plus travel
costs, you will have to work fast before they
are gone.

The exhibition case-back
allows Blue Sea owners to show
their friends the guts and glory
of a real chronograph classic.
Each of the 999 limited pieces are
individually numbered.
• Reference 263-97LE-3C
stainless steel

South Africa’s big wave surfer and 2010
Mavericks champion, Chris Bertish,
recently explained in an interview with a
famous men’s magazine how he used his
sailing skills to get around the world and to
earn the money that he needed for his surfing
exploits.
Now, admittedly, Chris grew up in a sailing familywith his dad
having built the first catamaran in Cape Town (Chris recalls
how, in those early days, people would ask why his dad had
two yachts stuck to one another). Chris virtually learned to
sail and walk at the same time. Years later, once he finished
school at Rondebosch Boys High School, he confidently
skipped abroad armed with his sailing skills and determined to
compete and to earn.
Time abroad post-school or post-varsity is an important
rite of passage. The more so if you consider that longevity
forecasts for today’s 20-somethings suggest they may live
to over 100 years old and may, therefore, have to work up to
a mandatory retirement age of 75 or 80. With that long of a
working life ahead, it makes all the more sense to take a few
years off to travel and experience the world while you are still
young and beautiful.
Your parents’ generation had their own rites, too, and they
likely backpacked around Europe with a passport filled with
tough-to-get visas due to the Apartheid-laden stigma South
Africa carried at the time. Then, post-Madiba’s release, when

62

our own continent finally welcomed us, the overland, Driftersstyle tour guide jobs become de rigueur. What a tough job
guiding 20 scared blonde Scandinavian beauties through
hostile terrain! After the Commonwealth invited us back in
and offered our under 26s special working permits, London
housed more South Africans than what one Mrs Balls Chutney
factory could handle. We once spent a week in London where
a “Seffie” served every meal we had. But, then came corrupt
Home Affairs and 9/11 fears, and suddenly the SA passport
and the youthful London segue was no longer that easy.
Enter the world of the skipper’s license, obtainable
regardless of whether you grew up in the Namib desert or on
the water like Bertish above. All one needs is a good sailing
school, of which there are several in both Durban and the
Cape. We first found out about this super-cool work and
lifestyle option in a truly bizarre fashion.
A few years ago, walking around Monaco’s harbour, and
gawking at some of the world’s most expensive yachts, my
eye caught one particularly spectacular vessel called Tooth
Fairy. (Go Google the yacht to see what I am speaking of.)
Even more bizarre was the guy wearing the Springbok rugby
jersey climbing the mast. I hung around until he came on shore
and we struck up a conversation. He was a young Afrikaans
guy from Pretoria who became bored with his job and studies,
enrolled for his skipper’s license, and ended up working around
the world on the back of this exquisite yacht. (There is also a
great story about how the yacht got its name.)

On different trips to the Seychelles, we often encountered
cliques of tanned and healthy youngsters hanging around
sweeping the decks, yet having the run of these luxury toys for
most of the year as they sailed from harbour to harbour waiting
for the yacht’s rich owners to jet in for a day or two once in a
while. Paul Allen’s Octopussy came through there once, with its
own helicopter, basketball court and movie theatre. This is the
kind of neighbourhood where you want to work.
Of all the young South Africans we met alongside the quays
of the worlds’ exquisite marinas, Alex takes the cake. She
graduated from UJ with a general BA. She au paired abroad
for a while in the north-eastern US, and then started working
on yachts. She also learnt to cook. Really well. In fact, so well
that a famous Australian media mogul and his wife decided
that Alex should cook for them on-board their yacht, regardless
of where in the world they sailed, as well as at each of their
multiple homes across the globe, even if that meant she had
to constantly travel with them on their private Boeing 737 to be
on call at their next location. It is hard work, but it pays well and
she gets to travel and network with great people.

With that long a working life ahead, it makes
all the more sense to take a few years off to
travel and experience the world while you
are still young and beautiful.
So, altogether it’s not a bad idea to get yourself certified at
any one of several reputable local sailing academies and, upon
graduation, you can set off to see the world. Moreover, if you
plan on being a future investment guru or real estate tycoon in
your own right, it’s never too early to get to know the glamorous
world of large yachts and sailing boats.
Each sailing academy tends to reflect its owner’s character, so
do check out each of them carefully to find the ideal match. You
also need to verify the quality of training, so do ask for several
alumni references and make a point of phoning or messaging
alumni and asking their opinion. Odds are, once they have
sailed for a few years past graduation, they will have a wellinformed idea of what was good or lacking in their training.
Finally, pick up a magazine such as SA Sailing, a long-standing
institution among local sailors, and see what they have to say
about each potential sailing school. The courses can be quite
expensive and your life and limb may depend some day on the
quality of your training. So, do the homework upfront.
Anchors away.

63

analysis

Stock pick

W

Woolworths Holding Ltd

oolworths is involved in the retailing sector in South
Africa. It offers quality clothing, food, home-ware,
beauty and financial services under its own brand
name. It also operates in Australia via its investment in Country
Road and more recently Witchery (ASX: WOW).
Woolworths targets the higher income market by providing
customers with the top-quality products. It is also now
targeting the upper echelons of society through its comparative
advantage in the retailing sector.
Despite the recent turmoil in the credit markets, Woolworths
has come out fairly unscathed. With rising petrol and electricity
prices and inflation growing faster than wage prices, people’s
disposable income has shrunk. This has resulted in the increase
in bad debt and the tightening of credit. With the tightening of
credit comes a decrease in consumption expenditure. Now,
while this credit tightening has severely affected stores such as
Shoprite that target lower-income households, the credit turmoil
hasn’t affected Woolworths’ sales. Recently they announced
an increase in sales of 20% while analysts were predicting an
increase within the range of 12%.
With the ever-growing middle and upper classes in South
Africa there is an ever-growing customer base to be served

and Woolworths face little competition in their niche of targeting
higher income households.
Woolworths also demonstrates a serious commitment to
sustainability.* This often undervalued trait gives companies a big
comparative advantage against those who don’t. Woolworths
was recently included in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index and
is the only South African company to be recognised by the World
Economic Forum’s “New Sustainability Champions”.
Woolworths has recently been sold off and value can be
found in this share at current prices. A few quick stats that
depict this value can be found in the price to earnings which
has dropped from 26 times to 22 times; the debt to equity is
only 0.3; and the return on capital has averaged around 30%
over the last six years. The only downside in this stock is its
NAV to Price which is over 11 times, and with this comes a
degree of risk.
The chart depicting the share’s recent performance shows
how well it has done. But the question is whether it can continue
its splendid run. With its solid and sustainable performance thus
far, as well as its relatively low price to earnings (compared to
Pick n Pay at 42 times, and Shoprite at 26 times), there still may
be great things to come from “Woolies” in the next few years.

[JSE ticker: WHL]

Woolworths 3 years (6,900c +174.90%)
8741
6952
5163
3374
1585
2011

2012

2013

*If you are interested in learning more about the importance of sustainability, we recommend this rather long,
but important article: http://www.cordatus.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Fewer-Richer-Greener.pdf

65

To: All Investors
With about ZAR5.00 billion under
management and a good track record,
why not invest with us. Invest wisely.
Contact: invest@jmbusha.com